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SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server
11 SP3
October 16, 2014
www.suse.com
Security Guide
Security Guide
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Contents
About This Guide
xiii
1 Available Documentation ...................................................................... xiii
2 Feedback ............................................................................................. xv
3 Documentation Conventions .................................................................. xvi
1 Security and Confidentiality
1
1.1 Local Security and Network Security ...................................................... 1
1.2 Some General Security Tips and Tricks ................................................. 10
1.3 Using the Central Security Reporting Address ........................................ 13
I Authentication
15
2 Authentication with PAM
17
2.1 What is PAM? ................................................................................... 17
2.2 Structure of a PAM Configuration File ................................................. 18
2.3 The PAM Configuration of sshd .......................................................... 21
2.4 Configuration of PAM Modules ........................................................... 23
2.5 Configuring PAM Using pam-config .................................................... 25
2.6 Manually Configuring PAM ................................................................. 26
2.7 For More Information ......................................................................... 26
3 Using NIS
29
3.1 Configuring NIS Servers ..................................................................... 29
3.2 Configuring NIS Clients ...................................................................... 36
4 LDAP—A Directory Service
39
4.1 LDAP versus NIS .............................................................................. 40
4.2 Structure of an LDAP Directory Tree ................................................... 41
4.3 Configuring an LDAP Server with YaST ............................................... 44
4.4 Configuring an LDAP Client with YaST ............................................... 53
4.5 Configuring LDAP Users and Groups in YaST ....................................... 61
4.6 Browsing the LDAP Directory Tree ...................................................... 62
4.7 Manually Configuring an LDAP Server ................................................. 64
4.8 Manually Administering LDAP Data .................................................... 65
4.9 For More Information ......................................................................... 69
5 Active Directory Support
71
5.1 Integrating Linux and AD Environments ................................................ 71
5.2 Background Information for Linux AD Support ..................................... 72
5.3 Configuring a Linux Client for Active Directory ..................................... 77
5.4 Logging In to an AD Domain .............................................................. 80
5.5 Changing Passwords ........................................................................... 81
6 Network Authentication with Kerberos
85
6.1 Kerberos Terminology ........................................................................ 85
6.2 How Kerberos Works ......................................................................... 87
6.3 Users' View of Kerberos ..................................................................... 90
6.4 Installing and Administering Kerberos ................................................... 91
6.5 For More Information ....................................................................... 111
7 Using the Fingerprint Reader
113
7.1 Supported Applications and Actions .................................................... 113
7.2 Managing Fingerprints with YaST ....................................................... 114
II Local Security
117
8 Configuring Security Settings with YaST
119
8.1 Security Overview .............................................................................. 119
8.2 Predefined Security Configurations ...................................................... 120
8.3 Password Settings .............................................................................. 121
8.4 Boot Settings ..................................................................................... 122
8.5 Login Settings ................................................................................... 122
8.6 User Addition ................................................................................... 123
8.7 Miscellaneous Settings ........................................................................ 123
9 PolicyKit
125
9.1 Conceptual Overview ........................................................................ 125
9.2 Modifying and Setting Privileges ........................................................ 128
10 Access Control Lists in Linux
137
10.1 Traditional File Permissions ............................................................. 137
10.2 Advantages of ACLs ....................................................................... 139
10.3 Definitions ..................................................................................... 139
10.4 Handling ACLs ............................................................................... 140
10.5 ACL Support in Applications ........................................................... 148
10.6 For More Information ..................................................................... 148
11 Encrypting Partitions and Files
149
11.1 Setting Up an Encrypted File System with YaST ................................. 150
11.2 Using Encrypted Home Directories ................................................... 153
11.3 Using vi to Encrypt Single ASCII Text Files ....................................... 154
12 Certificate Store
155
12.1 Activating Certificate Store .............................................................. 155
12.2 Importing Certificates ...................................................................... 156
13 Intrusion Detection with AIDE
157
13.1 Why Using AIDE? .......................................................................... 157
13.2 Setting Up an AIDE Database .......................................................... 158
13.3 Local AIDE Checks ........................................................................ 160
13.4 System Independent Checking .......................................................... 161
13.5 For More Information ..................................................................... 162
III Network Security
165
14 SSH: Secure Network Operations
167
14.1 ssh—Secure Shell ......................................................................... 167
14.2 scp—Secure Copy ......................................................................... 168
14.3 sftp—Secure File Transfer ............................................................ 169
14.4 The SSH Daemon (sshd) ............................................................... 170
14.5 SSH Authentication Mechanisms ...................................................... 171
14.6 Port Forwarding .............................................................................. 174
14.7 Configuring An SSH Daemon with YaST ........................................... 175
14.8 For More Information ..................................................................... 176
15 Masquerading and Firewalls
177
15.1 Packet Filtering with iptables ........................................................... 177
15.2 Masquerading Basics ....................................................................... 179
15.3 Firewalling Basics ........................................................................... 181
15.4 SuSEfirewall2 ................................................................................. 181
15.5 For More Information ..................................................................... 187
16 Configuring VPN Server
189
16.1 Conceptual Overview ...................................................................... 189
16.2 Creating the Simplest VPN Example ................................................. 193
16.3 Setting Up Your VPN Server Using Certificate Authority ..................... 195
16.4 Changing Nameservers in VPN ......................................................... 201
16.5 KDE- and GNOME Applets For Clients ............................................ 201
16.6 For More Information ..................................................................... 204
17 Managing X.509 Certification
205
17.1 The Principles of Digital Certification ............................................... 205
17.2 YaST Modules for CA Management .................................................. 209
17.3 For More Information ..................................................................... 220
IV Confining Privileges with AppArmor
18 Introducing AppArmor
221
223
18.1 Background Information on AppArmor Profiling ................................ 224
19 Getting Started
225
19.1 Installing AppArmor ....................................................................... 225
19.2 Enabling and Disabling AppArmor .................................................... 226
19.3 Choosing the Applications to Profile ................................................. 227
19.4 Building and Modifying Profiles ....................................................... 228
19.5 Configuring AppArmor Event Notification and Reports ....................... 230
19.6 Updating Your Profiles .................................................................... 231
20 Immunizing Programs
233
20.1 Introducing the AppArmor Framework .............................................. 234
20.2 Determining Programs to Immunize .................................................. 236
20.3 Immunizing cron Jobs ..................................................................... 237
20.4 Immunizing Network Applications .................................................... 237
21 Profile Components and Syntax
243
21.1 Breaking a AppArmor Profile into Its Parts ........................................ 244
21.2 Profile Types ................................................................................. 247
21.3 #include Statements .................................................................... 249
21.4 Capability Entries (POSIX.1e) .......................................................... 250
21.5 Network Access Control .................................................................. 251
21.6 Paths and Globbing ......................................................................... 251
21.7 File Permission Access Modes .......................................................... 254
21.8 Execute Modes ............................................................................... 257
21.9 Resource Limit Control ................................................................... 262
21.10 Auditing Rules .............................................................................. 263
21.11 Setting Capabilities per Profile ....................................................... 264
22 AppArmor Profile Repositories
267
22.1 Using the Local Repository .............................................................. 267
22.2 Using the External Repository .......................................................... 268
23 Building and Managing Profiles with YaST
271
23.1 Adding a Profile Using the Wizard ................................................... 273
23.2 Manually Adding a Profile ............................................................... 281
23.3 Editing Profiles .............................................................................. 281
23.4 Deleting a Profile ........................................................................... 287
23.5 Updating Profiles from Log Entries ................................................... 287
23.6 Managing AppArmor and Security Event Status .................................. 288
24 Building Profiles from the Command Line
293
24.1 Checking the AppArmor Module Status ............................................. 293
24.2 Building AppArmor Profiles ............................................................ 295
24.3 Adding or Creating an AppArmor Profile .......................................... 295
24.4 Editing an AppArmor Profile ........................................................... 296
24.5 Deleting an AppArmor Profile ......................................................... 296
24.6 Two Methods of Profiling ................................................................ 296
24.7 Important Filenames and Directories ................................................. 317
25 Profiling Your Web Applications Using ChangeHat
319
25.1 Apache ChangeHat ......................................................................... 320
25.2 Configuring Apache for mod_apparmor ............................................. 326
26 Confining Users with pam_apparmor
331
27 Managing Profiled Applications
333
27.1 Monitoring Your Secured Applications .............................................. 333
27.2 Configuring Security Event Notification ............................................ 334
27.3 Configuring Reports ........................................................................ 337
27.4 Configuring and Using the AppArmor Desktop Monitor Applet ............. 356
27.5 Reacting to Security Event Rejections ............................................... 356
27.6 Maintaining Your Security Profiles ................................................... 357
28 Support
359
28.1 Updating AppArmor Online ............................................................. 359
28.2 Using the Man Pages ....................................................................... 359
28.3 For More Information ..................................................................... 361
28.4 Troubleshooting .............................................................................. 361
28.5 Reporting Bugs for AppArmor ......................................................... 368
29 AppArmor Glossary
371
V SELinux
375
30 Configuring SELinux on SUSE Linux Enterprise 11
SP2
377
30.1 SELinux backgrounds ...................................................................... 377
30.2 The Policy ..................................................................................... 381
30.3 Installing SELinux on SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 SP2 .......................... 382
30.4 Installing SELinux Packages and modifying GRUB ............................. 382
30.5 Compiling the Policy ....................................................................... 384
30.6 Configuring SELinux ...................................................................... 387
30.7 Managing SELinux .......................................................................... 389
30.8 Troubleshooting SELinux ................................................................. 397
30.9 Switching to Enforcing Mode ........................................................... 400
VI The Linux Audit Framework
31 Understanding Linux Audit
403
405
31.1 Introducing the Components of Linux Audit ....................................... 407
31.2 Configuring the Audit Daemon ......................................................... 409
31.3 Controlling the Audit System Using auditctl ....................................... 415
31.4 Passing Parameters to the Audit System ............................................. 417
31.5 Understanding the Audit Logs and Generating Reports ......................... 421
31.6 Querying the Audit Daemon Logs with ausearch ................................. 432
31.7 Analyzing Processes with autrace ...................................................... 436
31.8 Visualizing Audit Data .................................................................... 436
31.9 Relaying Audit Event Notifications ................................................... 439
32 Setting Up the Linux Audit Framework
443
32.1 Determining the Components to Audit ............................................... 444
32.2 Configuring the Audit Daemon ......................................................... 445
32.3 Enabling Audit for System Calls ....................................................... 446
32.4 Setting Up Audit Rules .................................................................... 447
32.5 Configuring Audit Reports ............................................................... 449
32.6 Configuring Log Visualization .......................................................... 452
33 Introducing an Audit Rule Set
455
33.1 Adding Basic Audit Configuration Parameters .................................... 456
33.2 Adding Watches on Audit Log Files and Configuration Files ................. 457
33.3 Monitoring File System Objects ........................................................ 458
33.4 Monitoring Security Configuration Files and Databases ........................ 459
33.5 Monitoring Miscellaneous System Calls ............................................. 461
33.6 Filtering System Call Arguments ....................................................... 462
33.7 Managing Audit Event Records Using Keys ........................................ 465
34 Useful Resources
467
A GNU Licenses
469
A.1 GNU Free Documentation License ..................................................... 469
About This Guide
This manual introduces the basic concepts of system security on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. It covers extensive documentation about the authentication mechanisms
available on Linux, such as NIS or LDAP. It also deals with aspects of local security like access control lists, encryption and intrusion detection. In the network security part you learn how to secure your computers with firewalls and masquerading,
and how to set up virtual private networks (VPN). This manual also shows you how to
make use of the product's inherent security software like AppArmor (which lets you
specify per program which files the program may read, write, and execute) or the auditing system that reliably collects information about any security-relevant events.
Many chapters in this manual contain links to additional documentation resources.
These include additional documentation that is available on the system, as well as documentation available on the Internet.
For an overview of the documentation available for your product and the latest documentation updates, refer to http://www.suse.com/doc or to the following section.
1 Available Documentation
We provide HTML and PDF versions of our books in different languages. The following manuals for users and administrators are available for this product:
Deployment Guide (↑Deployment Guide)
Shows how to install single or multiple systems and how to exploit the product
inherent capabilities for a deployment infrastructure. Choose from various approaches, ranging from a local installation or a network installation server to a
mass deployment using a remote-controlled, highly-customized, and automated
installation technique.
Administration Guide (↑Administration Guide)
Covers system administration tasks like maintaining, monitoring, and customizing
an initially installed system.
Security Guide (page i)
Introduces basic concepts of system security, covering both local and network security aspects. Shows how to make use of the product inherent security software
like AppArmor (which lets you specify per program which files the program may
read, write, and execute), and the auditing system that reliably collects information about any security-relevant events.
Security and Hardening (↑Security and Hardening)
Deals with the particulars of installing and setting up a secure SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and additional post-installation processes required to further secure and harden that installation. Supports the administrator with security-related
choices and decisions.
System Analysis and Tuning Guide (↑System Analysis and Tuning Guide)
An administrator's guide for problem detection, resolution and optimization. Find
how to inspect and optimize your system by means of monitoring tools and how
to efficiently manage resources. Also contains an overview of common problems
and solutions, and of additional help and documentation resources.
Virtualization with Xen (↑Virtualization with Xen)
Offers an introduction to virtualization technology of your product. It features an
overview of the various fields of application and installation types of each of the
platforms supported by SUSE Linux Enterprise Server as well as a short description of the installation procedure.
Virtualization with KVM for IBM System z (↑Virtualization with KVM for IBM System z)
Offers an introduction to setting up and managing virtualization with KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. Learn how to manage KVM with libvirt or QEMU. The guide also contains detailed information
about requirements, limitations, and support status.
AutoYaST (↑AutoYaST)
AutoYaST is a system for installing one or more SUSE Linux Enterprise systems
automatically and without user intervention, using an AutoYaST profile that contains installation and configuration data. The manual guides you through the basic
steps of auto-installation: preparation, installation, and configuration.
Storage Administration Guide (↑Storage Administration Guide)
Provides information about how to manage storage devices on a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.
In addition to the comprehensive manuals, several quick start guides are available:
xiv
Security Guide
Installation Quick Start (↑Installation Quick Start)
Lists the system requirements and guides you step-by-step through the installation
of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server from DVD, or from an ISO image.
Linux Audit Quick Start
Gives a short overview how to enable and configure the auditing system and how
to execute key tasks such as setting up audit rules, generating reports, and analyzing the log files.
AppArmor Quick Start
Helps you understand the main concepts behind AppArmor®.
Virtualization with Linux Containers (LXC) (↑Virtualization with Linux Containers
(LXC))
Gives a short introduction to LXC (a lightweight “virtualization” method) and
shows how to set up an LXC host and LXC containers.
Find HTML versions of most product manuals in your installed system under /usr/
share/doc/manual or in the help centers of your desktop. Find the latest documentation updates at http://www.suse.com/doc where you can download
PDF or HTML versions of the manuals for your product.
2 Feedback
Several feedback channels are available:
Bugs and Enhancement Requests
For services and support options available for your product, refer to http://
www.suse.com/support/.
To report bugs for a product component, log in to the Novell Customer Center
from http://www.suse.com/support/ and select My Support > Service
Request.
User Comments
We want to hear your comments about and suggestions for this manual and the
other documentation included with this product. Use the User Comments feature at the bottom of each page in the online documentation or go to http://
www.suse.com/doc/feedback.html and enter your comments there.
About This Guide
xv
Mail
For feedback on the documentation of this product, you can also send a mail to
[email protected]. Make sure to include the document title, the product
version, and the publication date of the documentation. To report errors or suggest enhancements, provide a concise description of the problem and refer to the
respective section number and page (or URL).
3 Documentation Conventions
The following typographical conventions are used in this manual:
• /etc/passwd: directory names and filenames
• placeholder: replace placeholder with the actual value
• PATH: the environment variable PATH
• ls, --help: commands, options, and parameters
• user: users or groups
• Alt, Alt + F1: a key to press or a key combination; keys are shown in uppercase as
on a keyboard
• File, File > Save As: menu items, buttons
• #amd64 em64t ipf: This paragraph is only relevant for the architectures amd64,
em64t, and ipf. The arrows mark the beginning and the end of the text block. ◄
#ipseries zseries: This paragraph is only relevant for the architectures System z
and ipseries. The arrows mark the beginning and the end of the text block. ◄
• Dancing Penguins (Chapter Penguins, ↑Another Manual): This is a reference to a
chapter in another manual.
xvi
Security Guide
Security and Confidentiality
One of the main characteristics of a Linux or UNIX system is its ability to handle
several users at the same time (multiuser) and to allow these users to perform several tasks (multitasking) on the same computer simultaneously. Moreover, the operating system is network transparent. The users often do not know whether the data and
applications they are using are provided locally from their machine or made available
over the network.
1
With the multiuser capability, the data of different users must be stored separately,
and security and privacy need to be guaranteed. Data security was already an important issue, even before computers could be linked through networks. Just like today,
the most important concern was the ability to keep data available in spite of a lost or
otherwise damaged data medium (a hard disk in most cases).
This section is primarily focused on confidentiality issues and on ways to protect the
privacy of users, but it cannot be stressed enough that a comprehensive security concept should always include procedures to have a regularly updated, workable, and tested backup in place. Without this, you could have a very hard time getting your data
back—not only in the case of some hardware defect, but also in the case that someone
has gained unauthorized access and tampered with files.
1.1 Local Security and Network
Security
There are several ways of accessing data:
Security and Confidentiality
1
• personal communication with people who have the desired information or access to
the data on a computer
• directly through physical access from the console of a computer
• over a serial line
• using a network link
In all these cases, a user should be authenticated before accessing the resources or
data in question. A Web server might be less restrictive in this respect, but you still
would not want it to disclose your personal data to an anonymous user.
In the list above, the first case is the one where the highest amount of human interaction is involved (such as when you are contacting a bank employee and are required to
prove that you are the person owning that bank account). Then, you are asked to provide a signature, a PIN, or a password to prove that you are the person you claim to
be. In some cases, it might be possible to elicit some intelligence from an informed
person just by mentioning known bits and pieces to win the confidence of that person.
The victim could be led to reveal gradually more information, maybe without even being aware of it. Among hackers, this is called social engineering. You can only guard
against this by educating people and by dealing with language and information in a
conscious way. Before breaking into computer systems, attackers often try to target
receptionists, service people working with the company, or even family members. In
many cases, such an attack based on social engineering is only discovered at a much
later time.
A person wanting to obtain unauthorized access to your data could also use the traditional way and try to get at your hardware directly. Therefore, the machine should
be protected against any tampering so that no one can remove, replace, or cripple
its components. This also applies to backups and even any network cables or power
cords. Also secure the boot procedure, because there are some well-known key combinations that might provoke unusual behavior. Protect yourself against this by setting
passwords for the BIOS and the boot loader.
Serial terminals connected to serial ports are still used in many places. Unlike network interfaces, they do not rely on network protocols to communicate with the host.
A simple cable or an infrared port is used to send plain characters back and forth between the devices. The cable itself is the weakest point of such a system: with an older
printer connected to it, it is easy to record any data being transferred thusly. What can
be achieved with a printer can also be accomplished in other ways, depending on the
effort that goes into the attack.
2
Security Guide
Reading a file locally on a host requires additional access rules than opening a network connection with a server on a different host. There is a distinction between local
security and network security. The line is drawn where data must be put into packets
to be sent somewhere else.
1.1.1 Local Security
Local security starts with the physical environment at the location in which computer is running. Set up your machine in a place where security is in line with your expectations and needs. The main goal of local security is to keep users separate from each
other, so no user can assume the permissions or the identity of another. This is a general rule to be observed, but it is especially true for the user root, who holds system
administration privileges. root can take on the identity of any other local user and
read any locally-stored file without being prompted for the password.
1.1.1.1 Passwords
On a Linux system, passwords are not stored as plain text and the entered text string is
not simply matched with the saved pattern. If this were the case, all accounts on your
system would be compromised as soon as someone got access to the corresponding
file. Instead, the stored password is encrypted and, each time it is entered, is encrypted again and the two encrypted strings are compared. This only provides more security if the encrypted password cannot be reverse-computed into the original text string.
This is actually achieved by a special kind of algorithm, also called trapdoor algorithm, because it only works in one direction. An attacker who has obtained the encrypted string is not able to get your password by simply applying the same algorithm
again. Instead, it would be necessary to test all the possible character combinations until a combination is found that looks like your password when encrypted. With passwords eight characters long, there are quite a number of possible combinations to calculate.
In the seventies, it was argued that this method would be more secure than others due
to the relative slowness of the algorithm used, which took a few seconds to encrypt
just one password. In the meantime, however, PCs have become powerful enough to
do several hundred thousand or even millions of encryptions per second. Because of
this, encrypted passwords should not be visible to regular users (/etc/shadow cannot be read by normal users). It is even more important that passwords are not easy to
Security and Confidentiality
3
guess, in case the password file becomes visible due to some error. Consequently, it is
not really useful to “translate” a password like “tantalize” into “t@nt@1lz3”.
Replacing some letters of a word with similar looking numbers (like writing the password “tantalize” as “t@nt@1lz3”) is not sufficient. Password cracking programs that
use dictionaries to guess words also play with substitutions like that. A better way is
to make up a word with no common meaning, something that only makes sense to you
personally, like the first letters of the words of a sentence or the title of a book, such
as “The Name of the Rose” by Umberto Eco. This would give the following safe password: “TNotRbUE9”. In contrast, passwords like “beerbuddy” or “jasmine76” are easily guessed even by someone who has only some casual knowledge about you.
1.1.1.2 The Boot Procedure
Configure your system so it cannot be booted from a floppy or from a CD, either
by removing the drives entirely or by setting a BIOS password and configuring the
BIOS to allow booting from a hard disk only. Normally, a Linux system is started by
a boot loader, allowing you to pass additional options to the booted kernel. Prevent
others from using such parameters during boot by setting an additional password in /
boot/grub/menu.lst (see Chapter 10, The Boot Loader GRUB (↑Administration
Guide)). This is crucial to your system's security. Not only does the kernel itself run
with root permissions, but it is also the first authority to grant root permissions at
system start-up.
1.1.1.3 File Permissions
As a general rule, always work with the most restrictive privileges possible for a given
task. For example, it is definitely not necessary to be root to read or write e-mail. If
the mail program has a bug, this bug could be exploited for an attack that acts with exactly the permissions of the program when it was started. By following the above rule,
minimize the possible damage.
The permissions of all files included in the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server distribution are carefully chosen. A system administrator who installs additional software or
other files should take great care when doing so, especially when setting the permission bits. Experienced and security-conscious system administrators always use the l option with the command ls to get an extensive file list, which allows them to detect any incorrect file permissions immediately. An incorrect file attribute does not
only mean that files could be changed or deleted. These modified files could be ex4
Security Guide
ecuted by root or, in the case of configuration files, programs could use such files
with the permissions of root. This significantly increases the possibilities of an attack. Attacks like these are called cuckoo eggs, because the program (the egg) is executed (hatched) by a different user (bird), just like a cuckoo tricks other birds into
hatching its eggs.
An SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server system includes the files per
missions, permissions.easy, permissions.secure, and
permissions.paranoid, all in the directory /etc. The purpose of these files
is to define special permissions, such as world-writable directories or, for files, the setuser ID bit (programs with the setuser ID bit set do not run with the permissions of
the user that has launched it, but with the permissions of the file owner, in most cases
root). An administrator can use the file /etc/permissions.local to add his
own settings.
To define which of the above files is used by SUSE Linux Enterprise Server's configuration programs to set permissions, select Local Security in the Security and Users
section of YaST. To learn more about the topic, read the comments in /etc/per
missions or consult the manual page of chmod (man chmod).
1.1.1.4 Buffer Overflows and Format String Bugs
Special care must be taken whenever a program needs to process data that could be
changed by a user, but this is more of an issue for the programmer of an application
than for regular users. The programmer must make sure that his application interprets
data in the correct way, without writing it into memory areas that are too small to hold
it. Also, the program should hand over data in a consistent manner, using interfaces
defined for that purpose.
A buffer overflow can happen if the actual size of a memory buffer is not taken into account when writing to that buffer. There are cases where this data (as generated
by the user) uses up more space than what is available in the buffer. As a result, data is written beyond the end of that buffer area, which, under certain circumstances,
makes it possible for a program to execute program sequences influenced by the user
(and not by the programmer), rather than just processing user data. A bug of this kind
may have serious consequences, especially if the program is being executed with special privileges (see Section 1.1.1.3, “File Permissions” (page 4)).
Format string bugs work in a slightly different way, but again it is the user input that
could lead the program astray. In most cases, these programming errors are exploitSecurity and Confidentiality
5
ed with programs executed with special permissions—setuid and setgid programs—
which also means that you can protect your data and your system from such bugs by
removing the corresponding execution privileges from programs. Again, the best way
is to apply a policy of using the lowest possible privileges (see Section 1.1.1.3, “File
Permissions” (page 4)).
Given that buffer overflows and format string bugs are bugs related to the handling
of user data, they are not only exploitable if access has been given to a local account.
Many of the bugs that have been reported can also be exploited over a network link.
Accordingly, buffer overflows and format string bugs should be classified as being
relevant for both local and network security.
1.1.1.5 Viruses
Contrary to popular opinion, there are viruses that run on Linux. However, the viruses
that are known were released by their authors as a proof of concept that the technique
works as intended. None of these viruses have been spotted in the wild so far.
Viruses cannot survive and spread without a host on which to live. In this case, the
host would be a program or an important storage area of the system, such as the master boot record, which needs to be writable for the program code of the virus. Owing to its multiuser capability, Linux can restrict write access to certain files (this is
especially important with system files). Therefore, if you did your normal work with
root permissions, you would increase the chance of the system being infected by a
virus. In contrast, if you follow the principle of using the lowest possible privileges as
mentioned above, chances of getting a virus are slim.
Apart from that, you should never rush into executing a program from some Internet
site that you do not really know. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server's RPM packages carry
a cryptographic signature, as a digital label that the necessary care was taken to build
them. Viruses are a typical sign that the administrator or the user lacks the required
security awareness, putting at risk even a system that should be highly secure by its
very design.
Viruses should not be confused with worms, which belong entirely to the world of
networks. Worms do not need a host to spread.
1.1.2 Network Security
6
Security Guide
Network security is important for protecting from an attack that is started outside the
network. The typical login procedure requiring a username and a password for user
authentication is still a local security issue. In the particular case of logging in over a
network, differentiate between the two security aspects. What happens until the actual
authentication is network security and anything that happens afterwards is local security.
1.1.2.1 X Window System and X Authentication
As mentioned at the beginning, network transparency is one of the central characteristics of a UNIX system. X, the windowing system of UNIX operating systems, can
make use of this feature in an impressive way. With X, it is basically no problem to
log in at a remote host and start a graphical program that is then sent over the network
to be displayed on your computer.
When an X client needs to be displayed remotely using an X server, the latter should
protect the resource managed by it (the display) from unauthorized access. In more
concrete terms, certain permissions must be given to the client program. With the X
Window System, there are two ways to do this, called host-based access control and
cookie-based access control. The former relies on the IP address of the host where the
client should run. The program to control this is xhost. xhost enters the IP address of a
legitimate client into a database belonging to the X server. However, relying on IP addresses for authentication is not very secure. For example, if there were a second user
working on the host sending the client program, that user would have access to the X
server as well—just like someone stealing the IP address. Because of these shortcomings, this authentication method is not described in more detail here, but you can learn
about it with man xhost.
In the case of cookie-based access control, a character string is generated that is only known to the X server and to the legitimate user, just like an ID card of some kind.
This cookie is stored on login in the file .Xauthority in the user's home directory
and is available to any X client wanting to use the X server to display a window. The
file .Xauthority can be examined by the user with the tool xauth. If you rename
.Xauthority, or if you delete the file from your home directory by accident, you
would not be able to open any new windows or X clients.
SSH (secure shell) can be used to encrypt a network connection completely and forward it to an X server transparently, without the encryption mechanism being perceived by the user. This is also called X forwarding. X forwarding is achieved by simulating an X server on the server side and setting a DISPLAY variable for the shell on
Security and Confidentiality
7
the remote host. Further details about SSH can be found in Chapter 14, SSH: Secure
Network Operations (page 167).
WARNING
If you do not consider the host where you log in to be a secure host, do not
use X forwarding. With X forwarding enabled, an attacker could authenticate
via your SSH connection to intrude on your X server and perpetrate various
actions (reading, or sniffing, your keyboard input, for instance).
1.1.2.2 Buffer Overflows and Format String Bugs
As discussed in Section 1.1.1.4, “Buffer Overflows and Format String
Bugs” (page 5), buffer overflows and format string bugs should be classified as
issues applying to both local and network security. As with the local variants of such
bugs, buffer overflows in network programs, when successfully exploited, are mostly used to obtain root permissions. Even if that is not the case, an attacker could use
the bug to gain access to an unprivileged local account to exploit other vulnerabilities
that might exist on the system.
Buffer overflows and format string bugs exploitable over a network link are certainly
the most frequent form of remote attacks, in general. Exploits for these—programs to
exploit these newly-found security holes—are often posted on security mailing lists.
They can be used to target the vulnerability without knowing the details of the code.
Over the years, experience has shown that the availability of exploit codes has contributed to more secure operating systems, obviously due to the fact that operating
system makers were forced to fix the problems in their software. With free software,
anyone has access to the source code (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server comes with all
available source codes) and anyone who finds a vulnerability and its exploit code can
submit a patch to fix the corresponding bug.
1.1.2.3 Denial of Service
The purpose of a denial of service (DoS) attack is to block a server program or even
an entire system, something that could be achieved by various means: overloading the
server, keeping it busy with garbage packets, or exploiting a remote buffer overflow.
Often, a DoS attack is made with the sole purpose of making the service disappear.
However, once a given service has become unavailable, communications could become vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks (sniffing, TCP connection hijacking,
spoofing) and DNS poisoning.
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Security Guide
1.1.2.4 Man in the Middle: Sniffing, Hijacking,
Spoofing
In general, any remote attack performed by an attacker who puts himself between
the communicating hosts is called a man-in-the-middle attack. What almost all types
of man-in-the-middle attacks have in common is that the victim is usually not aware
that there is something happening. There are many possible variants. For example, the
attacker could pick up a connection request and forward that to the target machine.
Now the victim has unwittingly established a connection with the wrong host, because
the other end is posing as the legitimate destination machine.
The simplest form of a man-in-the-middle attack is called sniffer (the attacker is
“just” listening to the network traffic passing by). As a more complex attack, the
“man in the middle” could try to take over an already established connection (hijacking). To do so, the attacker would need to analyze the packets for some time to be
able to predict the TCP sequence numbers belonging to the connection. When the attacker finally seizes the role of the target host, the victims notice this, because they
get an error message saying the connection was terminated due to a failure. The fact
that there are protocols not secured against hijacking through encryption (which only
perform a simple authentication procedure upon establishing the connection) makes it
easier for attackers.
Spoofing is an attack where packets are modified to contain counterfeit source data, usually the IP address. Most active forms of attack rely on sending out such fake
packets (something that, on a Linux machine, can only be done by the superuser
(root)).
Many of the attacks mentioned are carried out in combination with a DoS. If an attacker sees an opportunity to bring down a certain host abruptly, even if only for a
short time, it makes it easier for him to push the active attack, because the host will
not be able to interfere with the attack for some time.
1.1.2.5 DNS Poisoning
DNS poisoning means that the attacker corrupts the cache of a DNS server by replying to it with spoofed DNS reply packets, trying to get the server to send certain data to a victim who is requesting information from that server. Many servers maintain
a trust relationship with other hosts, based on IP addresses or hostnames. The attacker needs a good understanding of the actual structure of the trust relationships among
Security and Confidentiality
9
hosts to disguise itself as one of the trusted hosts. Usually, the attacker analyzes some
packets received from the server to get the necessary information. The attacker often
needs to target a well-timed DoS attack at the name server as well. Protect yourself by
using encrypted connections that are able to verify the identity of the hosts to which to
connect.
1.1.2.6 Worms
Worms are often confused with viruses, but there is a clear difference between the
two. Unlike viruses, worms do not need to infect a host program to live. Instead, they
are specialized to spread as quickly as possible on network structures. The worms that
appeared in the past, such as Ramen, Lion, or Adore, make use of well-known security holes in server programs like bind8 or lprNG. Protection against worms is relatively easy. Given that some time elapses between the discovery of a security hole and the
moment the worm hits your server, there is a good chance that an updated version of
the affected program is available on time. That is only useful if the administrator actually installs the security updates on the systems in question.
1.2 Some General Security Tips
and Tricks
To handle security competently, it is important to observe some recommendations.
You may find the following list of rules useful in dealing with basic security concerns:
• Get and install the updated packages recommended by security announcements as
quickly as possible.
• Stay informed about the latest security issues:
• http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-an
nounce/ is the SUSE mailinglist for security announcements. It is a
first-hand source of information regarding updated packages and includes members of SUSE's security team among its active contributors.
You can subscribe to this list on page http://en.opensuse.org/
openSUSE:Mailing_lists.
• Find SUSE security advisories as a news feed at http://
www.novell.com/linux/security/suse_security.xml.
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Security Guide
• [email protected] is one of the best-known security
mailing lists worldwide. Reading this list, which receives between 15 and
20 postings per day, is recommended. More information can be found at
http://www.securityfocus.com.
• Discuss any security issues of interest on our mailinglist [email protected].
• According to the rule of using the most restrictive set of permissions possible for
every job, avoid doing your regular jobs as root. This reduces the risk of getting a
cuckoo egg or a virus and protects you from your own mistakes.
• If possible, always try to use encrypted connections to work on a remote machine.
Using ssh (secure shell) to replace telnet, ftp, rsh, and rlogin should be
standard practice.
• Avoid using authentication methods based solely on IP addresses.
• Try to keep the most important network-related packages up-to-date and subscribe
to the corresponding mailing lists to receive announcements on new versions of
such programs (bind, postfix, ssh, etc.). The same should apply to software relevant
to local security.
•
Change the /etc/permissions file to optimize the permissions of files crucial
to your system's security. If you remove the setuid bit from a program, it might well
be that it cannot do its job anymore in the intended way. On the other hand, consider that, in most cases, the program will also have ceased to be a potential security
risk. You might take a similar approach with world-writable directories and files.
• Disable any network services you do not absolutely require for your server to work
properly. This makes your system safer. Open ports, with the socket state LISTEN,
can be found with the program netstat. As for the options, it is recommended
to use netstat -ap or netstat -anp. The -p option allows you to see which
process is occupying a port under which name.
Compare the netstat results with those of a thorough port scan done from outside your host. An excellent program for this job is nmap, which not only checks
out the ports of your machine, but also draws some conclusions as to which services
are waiting behind them. However, port scanning may be interpreted as an aggressive act, so do not do this on a host without the explicit approval of the administra-
Security and Confidentiality
11
tor. Finally, remember that it is important not only to scan TCP ports, but also UDP
ports (options -sS and -sU).
• To monitor the integrity of the files of your system in a reliable way, use the program AIDE (Advanced Intrusion Detection Environment), available on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. Encrypt the database created by AIDE to prevent someone
from tampering with it. Furthermore, keep a backup of this database available outside your machine, stored on an external data medium not connected to it by a network link.
• Take proper care when installing any third-party software. There have been cases where a hacker had built a trojan horse into the tar archive of a security software package, which was fortunately discovered very quickly. If you install a binary
package, have no doubts about the site from which you downloaded it.
SUSE's RPM packages are gpg-signed. The key used by SUSE for signing is:
ID:9C800ACA 2000-10-19 SUSE Package Signing Key <[email protected]>
Key fingerprint = 79C1 79B2 E1C8 20C1 890F 9994 A84E DAE8 9C80 0ACA
The command rpm --checksig package.rpm shows whether the checksum
and the signature of an uninstalled package are correct. Find the key on the first CD
of the distribution and on most key servers worldwide.
• Check backups of user and system files regularly. Consider that if you do not test
whether the backup works, it might actually be worthless.
• Check your log files. Whenever possible, write a small script to search for suspicious entries. Admittedly, this is not exactly a trivial task. In the end, only you can
know which entries are unusual and which are not.
• Use tcp_wrapper to restrict access to the individual services running on your
machine, so you have explicit control over which IP addresses can connect to a service. For further information regarding tcp_wrapper, consult the manual pages
of tcpd and hosts_access (man 8 tcpd, man hosts_access).
• Use SuSEfirewall to enhance the security provided by tcpd (tcp_wrapper).
• Design your security measures to be redundant: a message seen twice is much better
than no message at all.
• If you use suspend to disk, consider configuring the suspend image encryption using the configure-suspend-encryption.sh script. The pro12
Security Guide
gram creates the key, copies it to /etc/suspend.key, and modifies /etc/
suspend.conf to use encryption for suspend images.
1.3 Using the Central Security
Reporting Address
If you discover a security-related problem (please check the available update packages
first), write an e-mail to [email protected]. Please include a detailed description
of the problem and the version number of the package concerned. SUSE will try to
send a reply as soon as possible. You are encouraged to pgp-encrypt your e-mail messages. SUSE's pgp key is:
ID:3D25D3D9 1999-03-06 SUSE Security Team <[email protected]>
Key fingerprint = 73 5F 2E 99 DF DB 94 C4 8F 5A A3 AE AF 22 F2 D5
This key is also available for download from http://www.suse.com/sup
port/security/contact.html.
Security and Confidentiality
13
Part I. Authentication
Authentication with PAM
Linux uses PAM (pluggable authentication modules) in the authentication process as
a layer that mediates between user and application. PAM modules are available on a
systemwide basis, so they can be requested by any application. This chapter describes
how the modular authentication mechanism works and how it is configured.
2
2.1 What is PAM?
System administrators and programmers often want to restrict access to certain parts
of the system or to limit the use of certain functions of an application. Without PAM,
applications must be adapted every time a new authentication mechanism, such as
LDAP, Samba, or Kerberos, is introduced. This process, however, is rather time-consuming and error-prone. One way to avoid these drawbacks is to separate applications
from the authentication mechanism and delegate authentication to centrally managed
modules. Whenever a newly required authentication scheme is needed, it is sufficient
to adapt or write a suitable PAM module for use by the program in question.
The PAM concept consists of:
• PAM modules, which are a set of shared libraries for a specific authentication
mechanism.
• A module stack with of one or more PAM modules.
• A PAM-aware service which needs authentication by using a module stack or PAM
modules. Usually a service is a familiar name of the corresponding application, like
login or su. The service name other is a reserved word for default rules.
Authentication with PAM
17
• Module arguments, with which the execution of a single PAM module can be influenced.
• A mechanism evaluating each result of a single PAM module execution. A positive
value executes the next PAM module. The way a negative value is dealt with, depends on the configuration—“no influence, proceed” up to “terminate immediately”
and anything in between are valid options.
2.2 Structure of a PAM
Configuration File
PAM can be configured in two ways:
File based configuration (/etc/pam.conf)
The configuration of each service is stored in /etc/pam.conf. However, for
maintenance and usability reasons, this configuration scheme is not used in SUSE
Linux Enterprise Server.
Directory based configuration (/etc/pam.d/)
Every service (or program) that relies on the PAM mechanism has its own configuration file in the /etc/pam.d/ directory. For example, the service for sshd
can be found in the /etc/pam.d/sshd file.
The files under /etc/pam.d/ define the PAM modules used for authentication.
Each file consists of lines, which define a service, and each line consists of a maximum of four components:
TYPE
CONTROL
MODULE_PATH
MODULE_ARGS
The components have the following meaning:
TYPE
Declares the type of the service. PAM modules are processed as stacks. Different
types of modules have different purposes. For example, one module checks the
password, another verifies the location from which the system is accessed, and
yet another reads user-specific settings. PAM knows about four different types of
modules:
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Security Guide
auth
Check the user's authenticity, traditionally by querying a password. However, this can also be achieved with the help of a chip card or through biometrics (for example, fingerprints or iris scan).
account
Modules of this type check if the user has general permission to use the requested service. As an example, such a check should be performed to ensure
that no one can log in with the username of an expired account.
password
The purpose of this type of module is to enable the change of an authentication token. In most cases, this is a password.
session
Modules of this type are responsible for managing and configuring user sessions. They are started before and after authentication to log login attempts
and configure the user's specific environment (mail accounts, home directory, system limits, etc.).
CONTROL
Indicates the behavior of a PAM module. Each module can have the following
control flags:
required
A module with this flag must be successfully processed before the authentication may proceed. After the failure of a module with the required flag,
all other modules with the same flag are processed before the user receives a
message about the failure of the authentication attempt.
requisite
Modules having this flag must also be processed successfully, in much the
same way as a module with the required flag. However, in case of failure
a module with this flag gives immediate feedback to the user and no further
modules are processed. In case of success, other modules are subsequently
processed, just like any modules with the required flag. The requisite
flag can be used as a basic filter checking for the existence of certain conditions that are essential for a correct authentication.
sufficient
After a module with this flag has been successfully processed, the requesting
application receives an immediate message about the success and no further
Authentication with PAM
19
modules are processed, provided there was no preceding failure of a module
with the required flag. The failure of a module with the sufficient
flag has no direct consequences, in the sense that any subsequent modules are
processed in their respective order.
optional
The failure or success of a module with this flag does not have any direct
consequences. This can be useful for modules that are only intended to display a message (for example, to tell the user that mail has arrived) without
taking any further action.
include
If this flag is given, the file specified as argument is inserted at this place.
MODULE_PATH
Contains a full filename of a PAM module. It does not need to be specified explicitly, as long as the module is located in the default directory /lib/secu
rity (for all 64-bit platforms supported by SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server, the
directory is /lib64/security).
MODULE_ARGS
Contains a space-separated list of options to influence the behavior of a PAM
module, such as debug (enables debugging) or nullok (allows the use of empty passwords).
In addition, there are global configuration files for PAM modules under /etc/
security, which define the exact behavior of these modules (examples include
pam_env.conf and time.conf). Every application that uses a PAM module actually calls a set of PAM functions, which then process the information in the various
configuration files and return the result to the requesting application.
To facilitate the creation and maintenance of PAM modules, common default configuration files for the types auth, account, password, and session modules
have been introduced. These are retrieved from every application's PAM configuration. Updates to the global PAM configuration modules in common-* are thus propagated across all PAM configuration files without requiring the administrator to update every single PAM configuration file.
The global PAM configuration files are maintained using the pam-config tool.
This tool automatically adds new modules to the configuration, changes the configuration of existing ones or deletes modules (or options) from the configurations. Manual
intervention in maintaining PAM configurations is minimized or no longer required.
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Security Guide
NOTE: 64-Bit and 32-Bit Mixed Installations
When using a 64-bit operating system, it is possible to also include a runtime
environment for 32-bit applications. In this case, make sure that you install
both versions of the PAM modules.
2.3 The PAM Configuration of sshd
Consider the PAM configuration of sshd as an example:
Example 2.1: PAM Configuration for sshd (/etc/pam.d/sshd)
#%PAM-1.0
auth
requisite
auth
include
account requisite
account include
password include
session required
session include
pam_nologin.so
common-auth
pam_nologin.so
common-account
common-password
pam_loginuid.so
common-session
Declares the version of this configuration file for PAM 1.0. This is merely a
convention, but could be used in the future to check the version.
Checks, if /etc/nologin exists. If it does, no user other than root may log
in.
Refers to the configuration files of four module types: common-auth, com
mon-account, common-password, and common-session. These four
files hold the default configuration for each module type.
Sets the login uid process attribute for the process that was authenticated.
By including the configuration files instead of adding each module separately to the
respective PAM configuration, you automatically get an updated PAM configuration
when an administrator changes the defaults. Formerly, you had to adjust all configuration files manually for all applications when changes to PAM occurred or a new application was installed. Now the PAM configuration is made with central configuration
files and all changes are automatically inherited by the PAM configuration of each
service.
The first include file (common-auth) calls three modules of the auth
type: pam_env.so, pam_gnome_keyring.so and pam_unix2.so.
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21
See Example 2.2, “Default Configuration for the auth Section (com
mon-auth)” (page 22).
Example 2.2: Default Configuration for the auth Section (common-auth)
auth
auth
required
required
pam_env.so
pam_unix2.so
pam_env.so loads /etc/security/pam_env.conf to set the environment variables as specified in this file. It can be used to set the DISPLAY variable to the correct value, because the pam_env module knows about the location from which the login is taking place.
pam_unix2 checks the user's login and password against /etc/passwd and
/etc/shadow.
The whole stack of auth modules is processed before sshd gets any feedback about
whether the login has succeeded. All modules of the stack having the required
control flag must be processed successfully before sshd receives a message about the
positive result. If one of the modules is not successful, the entire module stack is still
processed and only then is sshd notified about the negative result.
As soon as all modules of the auth type have been successfully processed, another
include statement is processed, in this case, that in Example 2.3, “Default Configuration for the account Section (common-account)” (page 22). common-ac
count contains just one module, pam_unix2. If pam_unix2 returns the result
that the user exists, sshd receives a message announcing this success and the next
stack of modules (password) is processed, shown in Example 2.4, “Default Configuration for the password Section (common-password)” (page 22).
Example 2.3: Default Configuration for the account Section (common-account)
account required
pam_unix2.so
Example 2.4: Default Configuration for the password Section (common-password)
password requisite
password required
pam_pwcheck.so
pam_unix2.so
nullok cracklib
nullok use_authtok
Again, the PAM configuration of sshd involves just an include statement referring to
the default configuration for password modules located in common-password.
These modules must successfully be completed (control flags requisite and required) whenever the application requests the change of an authentication token.
Changing a password or another authentication token requires a security check. This
is achieved with the pam_pwcheck module. The pam_unix2 module used after22
Security Guide
wards carries over any old and new passwords from pam_pwcheck, so the user does
not need to authenticate again after changing the password. This procedure makes it
impossible to circumvent the checks carried out by pam_pwcheck. Whenever the
account or the auth type are configured to complain about expired passwords, the
password modules should also be used.
Example 2.5: Default Configuration for the session Section (common-session)
session required
session required
session optional
pam_limits.so
pam_unix2.so
pam_umask.so
As the final step, the modules of the session type (bundled in the common-ses
sion file) are called to configure the session according to the settings for the
user in question. The pam_limits module loads the file /etc/securi
ty/limits.conf, which may define limits on the use of certain system resources.
The pam_unix2 module is processed again. The pam_umask module can be used
to set the file mode creation mask. Since this module carries the optional flag, a
failure of this module would not affect the successful completion of the entire session
module stack. The session modules are called a second time when the user logs
out.
2.4 Configuration of PAM Modules
Some of the PAM modules are configurable. The configuration files are located in /
etc/security. This section briefly describes the configuration files relevant to
the sshd example—pam_env.conf and limits.conf.
2.4.1 pam_env.conf
pam_env.conf can be used to define a standardized environment for users that is
set whenever the pam_env module is called. With it, preset environment variables
using the following syntax:
VARIABLE
[DEFAULT=value]
[OVERRIDE=value]
VARIABLE
Name of the environment variable to set.
[DEFAULT=<value>]
Default value the administrator wants to set.
Authentication with PAM
23
[OVERRIDE=<value>]
Values that may be queried and set by pam_env, overriding the default value.
A typical example of how pam_env can be used is the adaptation of the DISPLAY
variable, which is changed whenever a remote login takes place. This is shown in Example 2.6, “pam_env.conf” (page 24).
Example 2.6: pam_env.conf
REMOTEHOST
DISPLAY
DEFAULT=localhost OVERRIDE=@{PAM_RHOST}
DEFAULT=${REMOTEHOST}:0.0 OVERRIDE=${DISPLAY}
The first line sets the value of the REMOTEHOST variable to localhost, which is
used whenever pam_env cannot determine any other value. The DISPLAY variable
in turn contains the value of REMOTEHOST. Find more information in the comments
in /etc/security/pam_env.conf.
2.4.2 pam_mount.conf
The purpose of pam_mount is to mount user home directories during the login
process, and to unmount them during logout in an environment where a central file
server keeps all the home directories of users. With this method, it is not necessary to
mount a complete /home directory where all the user home directories would be accessible. Instead, only the home directory of the user who is about to log in, is mounted.
After installing pam_mount, a template of pam_mount.conf.xml is available in
/etc/security. The description of the various elements can be found in the manual page man 5 pam_mount.conf.
A basic configuration of this feature can be done with YaST. Select Network Settings > Windows Domain Membership > Expert Settings to add the file server; see
Section “Configuring Clients” (Chapter 27, Samba, ↑Administration Guide).
2.4.3 limits.conf
System limits can be set on a user or group basis in limits.conf, which is read
by the pam_limits module. The file allows you to set hard limits, which may not
be exceeded at all, and soft limits, which may be exceeded temporarily. For more in24
Security Guide
formation about the syntax and the options, see the comments in /etc/securi
ty/limits.conf.
2.5 Configuring PAM Using pamconfig
The pam-config tool helps you configure the global PAM configuration files (/
etc/pam.d/common-*-pc) as well as several selected application configurations.
For a list of supported modules, use the pam-config --list-modules command. Use the pam-config command to maintain your PAM configuration files.
Add new modules to your PAM configurations, delete other modules or modify options to these modules. When changing global PAM configuration files, no manual
tweaking of the PAM setup for individual applications is required.
A simple use case for pam-config involves the following:
1 Auto-generate a fresh Unix-style PAM configuration. Let pam-config create
the simplest possible setup which you can extend later on. The pam-config -create command creates a simple UNIX authentication configuration. Pre-existing configuration files not maintained by pam-config are overwritten, but backup
copies are kept as *.pam-config-backup.
2 Add a new authentication method. Adding a new authentication method (for
example, LDAP) to your stack of PAM modules comes down to a simple pamconfig --add --ldap command. LDAP is added wherever appropriate
across all common-*-pc PAM configuration files.
3 Add debugging for test purposes. To make sure the new authentication procedure works as planned, turn on debugging for all PAM-related operations. The
pam-config --add --ldap-debug turns on debugging for LDAP-related
PAM operations. Find the debugging output in /var/log/messages.
4 Query your setup. Before you finally apply your new PAM setup, check if
it contains all the options you wanted to add. The pam-config --query
--module lists both the type and the options for the queried PAM module.
5 Remove the debug options. Finally, remove the debug option from your setup
when you are entirely satisfied with the performance of it. The pam-config -delete --ldap-debug command turns off debugging for LDAP authenticaAuthentication with PAM
25
tion. In case you had debugging options added for other modules, use similar commands to turn these off.
For more information on the pam-config command and the options available, refer to the manual page of pam-config(8).
2.6 Manually Configuring PAM
If you prefer to manually create or maintain your PAM configuration files, you need
to make sure to disable pam-config for these files.
When you create your PAM configuration files from scratch using the pam-config
--create command, it creates symbolic links from the common-* to the com
mon-*-pc files. pam-config only modifies the common-*-pc configuration
files. Removing these symbolic links effectively disables pam-config, because pamconfig only operates on the common-*-pc files and these files are not put into effect without the symbolic links.
2.7 For More Information
In the /usr/share/doc/packages/pam directory after installing the pamdoc package, find the following additional documentation:
READMEs
In the top level of this directory, there is the modules subdirectory holding
README files about the available PAM modules.
The Linux-PAM System Administrators' Guide
This document comprises everything that the system administrator should know
about PAM. It discusses a range of topics, from the syntax of configuration files
to the security aspects of PAM.
The Linux-PAM Module Writers' Manual
This document summarizes the topic from the developer's point of view, with information about how to write standard-compliant PAM modules.
The Linux-PAM Application Developers' Guide
This document comprises everything needed by an application developer who
wants to use the PAM libraries.
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Security Guide
The PAM Manual Pages
PAM in general as well as the individual modules come with manual pages that
provide a good overview of the functionality of all the components.
Authentication with PAM
27
Using NIS
As soon as multiple UNIX systems in a network access common resources, it becomes
imperative that all user and group identities are the same for all machines in that network. The network should be transparent to users: their environments should not vary,
regardless of which machine they are actually using. This can be done by means of
NIS and NFS services. NFS distributes file systems over a network and is discussed in
Chapter 28, Sharing File Systems with NFS (↑Administration Guide).
3
NIS (Network Information Service) can be described as a database-like service that
provides access to the contents of /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, and /etc/
group across networks. NIS can also be used for other purposes (making the contents of files like /etc/hosts or /etc/services available, for example), but
this is beyond the scope of this introduction. People often refer to NIS as YP, because
it works like the network's “yellow pages.”
3.1 Configuring NIS Servers
To distribute NIS information across networks, either install one single server (a master) that serves all clients, or NIS slave servers requesting this information from the
master and relaying it to their respective clients.
• To configure just one NIS server for your network, proceed with Section 3.1.1,
“Configuring a NIS Master Server” (page 30).
• If your NIS master server needs to export its data to slave servers, set up
the master server as described in Section 3.1.1, “Configuring a NIS Master
Using NIS
29
Server” (page 30) and set up slave servers in the subnets as described in Section 3.1.2, “Configuring a NIS Slave Server” (page 35).
3.1.1 Configuring a NIS Master Server
To configure a NIS master server for your network, proceed as follows:
1 Start YaST > Network Services > NIS Server.
2 If you need just one NIS server in your network or if this server is to act as the
master for further NIS slave servers, select Install and Set Up NIS Master Server.
YaST installs the required packages.
TIP
If NIS server software is already installed on your machine, initiate the creation of a NIS master server by clicking Create NIS Master Server.
Figure 3.1: NIS Server Setup
3 Determine basic NIS setup options:
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Security Guide
3a Enter the NIS domain name.
3b Define whether the host should also be a NIS client (enabling users to log
in and access data from the NIS server) by selecting This Host is also a NIS
Client.
3c If your NIS server needs to act as a master server to NIS slave servers in
other subnets, select Active Slave NIS Server Exists.
The option Fast Map Distribution is only useful in conjunction with Active
Slave NIS Servers Exist. It speeds up the transfer of maps to the slaves.
3d Select Allow Changes to Passwords to allow users in your network (both local users and those managed through the NIS server) to change their passwords on the NIS server (with the command yppasswd). This makes the
options Allow Changes to GECOS Field and Allow Changes to Login Shell
available. “GECOS” means that the users can also change their names and
address settings with the command ypchfn. “Shell” allows users to change
their default shell with the command ypchsh (for example, to switch from
Bash to sh). The new shell must be one of the predefined entries in /etc/
shells.
3e Select Open Port in Firewall to have YaST adapt the firewall settings for the
NIS server.
Using NIS
31
Figure 3.2: Master Server Setup
3f Leave this dialog with Next or click Other Global Settings to make additional
settings.
Other Global Settings include changing the source directory of the NIS server (/etc by default). In addition, passwords can be merged here. The setting should be Yes to create the user database from the system authentication files /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, and /etc/group. Also, determine the smallest user and group ID that should be offered by NIS. Click
OK to confirm your settings and return to the previous screen.
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Security Guide
Figure 3.3: Changing the Directory and Synchronizing Files for a NIS
Server
4 If you previously enabled Active Slave NIS Server Exists, enter the hostnames used
as slaves and click Next. If no slave servers exist, this configuration step is skipped.
5 Continue to the dialog for the database configuration. Specify the NIS Server Maps,
the partial databases to transfer from the NIS server to the client. The default settings are usually adequate. Leave this dialog with Next.
6 Check which maps should be available and click Next to continue.
Using NIS
33
Figure 3.4: NIS Server Maps Setup
7 Determine which hosts are allowed to query the NIS server. You can add, edit, or
delete hosts by clicking the appropriate button. Specify from which networks requests can be sent to the NIS server. Normally, this is your internal network. In this
case, there should be the following two entries:
255.0.0.0
0.0.0.0
127.0.0.0
0.0.0.0
The first entry enables connections from your own host, which is the NIS server.
The second one allows all hosts to send requests to the server.
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Security Guide
Figure 3.5: Setting Request Permissions for a NIS Server
8 Click Finish to save your changes and exit the setup.
3.1.2 Configuring a NIS Slave Server
To configure additional NIS slave servers in your network, proceed as follows:
1 Start YaST > Network Services > NIS Server.
2 Select Install and Set Up NIS Slave Server and click Next.
TIP
If NIS server software is already installed on your machine, initiate the creation of a NIS slave server by clicking Create NIS Slave Server.
3 Complete the basic setup of your NIS slave server:
3a Enter the NIS domain.
3b Enter hostname or IP address of the master server.
Using NIS
35
3c Set This Host is also a NIS Client if you want to enable user logins on this
server.
3d Adapt the firewall settings with Open Ports in Firewall.
3e Click Next.
4 Enter the hosts that are allowed to query the NIS server. You can add, edit, or
delete hosts by clicking the appropriate button. Specify all networks from which
requests can be sent to the NIS server. If it applies to all networks, use the following configuration:
255.0.0.0
0.0.0.0
127.0.0.0
0.0.0.0
The first entry enables connections from your own host, which is the NIS server.
The second one allows all hosts with access to the same network to send requests to
the server.
5 Click Finish to save changes and exit the setup.
3.2 Configuring NIS Clients
To use NIS on a workstation, do the following:
1 Start YaST > Network Services > NIS Client.
2 Activate the Use NIS button.
3 Enter the NIS domain. This is usually a domain name given by your administrator
or a static IP address received by DHCP. For information about DHCP, see Chapter 25, DHCP (↑Administration Guide).
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Security Guide
Figure 3.6: Setting Domain and Address of a NIS Server
4 Enter your NIS servers and separate their addresses by spaces. If you do not know
your NIS server, click on Find to let YaST search for any NIS servers in your domain. Depending on the size of your local network, this may be a time-consuming
process. Broadcast asks for a NIS server in the local network after the specified
servers fail to respond.
5 Depending on your local installation, you may also want to activate the automounter. This option also installs additional software if required.
6 If you do not want other hosts to be able to query which server your client is using, go to the Expert settings and disable Answer Remote Hosts. By checking Broken Server, the client is enabled to receive replies from a server communicating
through an unprivileged port. For further information, see man ypbind.
7 Click Finish to save them and return to the YaST control center. Your client is now
configured with NIS.
Using NIS
37
LDAP—A Directory Service
The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is a set of protocols designed to
access and maintain information directories. LDAP can be used for user and group
management, system configuration management, address management, and more.
This chapter provides a basic understanding of how OpenLDAP works and how to
manage LDAP data with YaST.
4
In a network environment it is crucial to keep important information structured and to
serve it quickly. A directory service—like the common yellow pages, keeps information available in a well-structured and readily-searchable form.
Ideally, a central server stores the data in a directory and distributes it to all clients using a well-defined protocol. The structured data allow a wide range of applications to
access them. A central repository reduces the necessary administrative effort. The use
of an open and standardized protocol like LDAP ensures that as many different client
applications as possible can access such information.
A directory in this context is a type of database optimized for quick and effective
reading and searching:
• To make multiple concurrent reading accesses possible, the number of updates is
usually very low. The number of read and write accesses is often limited to a few
users with administrative privileges. In contrast, conventional databases are optimized for accepting the largest possible data volume in a short time.
• When static data is administered, updates of the existing data sets are very rare.
When working with dynamic data, especially when data sets like bank accounts or
accounting are concerned, the consistency of the data is of primary importance. If
LDAP—A Directory Service
39
an amount should be subtracted from one place to be added to another, both operations must happen concurrently, within one transaction, to ensure balance over the
data stock. Traditional relational databases usually have a very strong focus on data consistency, such as the referential integrity support of transactions. Conversely,
short-term inconsistencies are usually acceptable in LDAP directories. LDAP directories often do not have such strong consistency requirements as relational databases.
The design of a directory service like LDAP is not laid out to support complex update
or query mechanisms. All applications are guaranteed to access this service quickly
and easily.
4.1 LDAP versus NIS
Unix system administrators traditionally use NIS (Network Information Service) for
name resolution and data distribution in a network. The configuration data contained
in the files group, hosts, mail, netgroup, networks, passwd, printcap,
protocols, rpc, and services in the /etc directory is distributed to clients all
over the network. These files can be maintained without major effort because they are
simple text files. The handling of larger amounts of data, however, becomes increasingly difficult due to nonexistent structuring. NIS is only designed for Unix platforms,
and is not suitable as a centralized data administration tool in heterogeneous networks.
Unlike NIS, the LDAP service is not restricted to pure Unix networks. Windows
servers (from 2000) support LDAP as a directory service. The application tasks mentioned above are additionally supported in non-Unix systems.
The LDAP principle can be applied to any data structure that needs to be centrally administered. A few application examples are:
• Replacement for the NIS service
• Mail routing (postfix, sendmail)
• Address books for mail clients, like Mozilla, Evolution, and Outlook
• Administration of zone descriptions for a BIND9 name server
• User authentication with Samba in heterogeneous networks
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Security Guide
This list can be extended because LDAP is extensible, unlike NIS. The clearly-defined hierarchical structure of the data eases the administration of large amounts of
data, as it can be searched more easily.
4.2 Structure of an LDAP Directory
Tree
To get background knowledge on how a LDAP server works and how the data is
stored, it is vital to understand the way the data is organized on the server and how
this structure enables LDAP to provide fast access to the data. To successfully operate an LDAP setup, you also need to be familiar with some basic LDAP terminology.
This section introduces the basic layout of an LDAP directory tree and provides the
basic terminology used with respect to LDAP. Skip this introductory section if you
already have some LDAP background knowledge and just want to learn how to set
up an LDAP environment in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. Read on at Section 4.3,
“Configuring an LDAP Server with YaST” (page 44) or Section 4.7, “Manually
Configuring an LDAP Server” (page 64).
An LDAP directory has a tree structure. All entries (called objects) of the directory
have a defined position within this hierarchy. This hierarchy is called the directory information tree (DIT). The complete path to the desired entry, which unambiguously
identifies it, is called the distinguished name or DN. A single node along the path to
this entry is called relative distinguished name or RDN.
The relations within an LDAP directory tree become more evident in the following
example, shown in Figure 4.1, “Structure of an LDAP Directory” (page 42).
LDAP—A Directory Service
41
Figure 4.1: Structure of an LDAP Directory
The complete diagram is a fictional directory information tree. The entries on
three levels are depicted. Each entry corresponds to one box in the image. The
complete, valid distinguished name for the fictional employee Geeko Linux, in
this case, is cn=Geeko Linux,ou=doc,dc=example,dc=com. It is composed by adding the RDN cn=Geeko Linux to the DN of the preceding entry
ou=doc,dc=example,dc=com.
The types of objects that can be stored in the DIT are globally determined following
a Schema. The type of an object is determined by the object class. The object class
determines what attributes the relevant object must or can be assigned. The Schema,
therefore, must contain definitions of all object classes and attributes used in the desired application scenario. There are a few common Schemas (see RFC 2252 and
2256). The LDAP RFC defines a few commonly used Schemas (see e.g., RFC4519).
Additionally there are Schemas available for many other use cases (e.g., Samba, NIS
replacement, etc.). It is, however, possible to create custom Schemas or to use multiple Schemas complementing each other (if this is required by the environment in
which the LDAP server should operate).
Table 4.1, “Commonly Used Object Classes and Attributes” (page 43)
offers a small overview of the object classes from core.schema and
inetorgperson.schema used in the example, including required attributes and
valid attribute values.
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Security Guide
Table 4.1: Commonly Used Object Classes and Attributes
Object Class
Meaning
Example Entry
Required
Attributes
dcObject
domainComponent (name components of the domain)
example
dc
organizationalUnit
organizationalUnit (organizational unit)
doc
ou
inetOrgPerson
inetOrgPerson (person-related
data for the intranet or Internet)
Geeko
Linux
sn and
cn
Example 4.1, “Excerpt from schema.core” (page 43) shows an excerpt from a
Schema directive with explanations.
Example 4.1: Excerpt from schema.core
attributetype (2.5.4.11 NAME ( 'ou' 'organizationalUnitName')
DESC 'RFC2256: organizational unit this object belongs to'
SUP name )
objectclass ( 2.5.6.5 NAME 'organizationalUnit'
DESC 'RFC2256: an organizational unit'
SUP top STRUCTURAL
MUST ou
MAY (userPassword $ searchGuide $ seeAlso $ businessCategory
$ x121Address $ registeredAddress $ destinationIndicator
$ preferredDeliveryMethod $ telexNumber
$ teletexTerminalIdentifier $ telephoneNumber
$ internationaliSDNNumber $ facsimileTelephoneNumber
$ street $ postOfficeBox $ postalCode $ postalAddress
$ physicalDeliveryOfficeName
$ st $ l $ description) )
...
The attribute type organizationalUnitName and the corresponding object
class organizationalUnit serve as an example here.
The name of the attribute, its unique OID (object identifier) (numerical), and the
abbreviation of the attribute.
LDAP—A Directory Service
43
A brief description of the attribute with DESC. The corresponding RFC, on
which the definition is based, is also mentioned here.
SUP indicates a superordinate attribute type to which this attribute belongs.
The definition of the object class organizationalUnit begins—the same
as in the definition of the attribute—with an OID and the name of the object
class.
A brief description of the object class.
The SUP top entry indicates that this object class is not subordinate to another
object class.
With MUST list all attribute types that must be used in conjunction with an object of the type organizationalUnit.
With MAY list all attribute types that are permitted in conjunction with this object class.
An introduction to the use of Schemas can be found in the OpenLDAP documentation. When installed, find it in /usr/share/doc/packages/openl
dap2/guide/admin/guide.html.
4.3 Configuring an LDAP Server
with YaST
Use YaST to set up an LDAP server. Typical use cases for LDAP servers include the
management of user account data and the configuration of mail, DNS, and DHCP
servers.
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Figure 4.2: YaST LDAP Server Configuration
LDAP—A Directory Service
45
Figure 4.3: YaST LDAP Server—New Database
To set up an LDAP server for user account data, make sure the yast2-ldapserver and openldap2 packages are installed. Then proceed as follows:
1 Start YaST as root and select Network Services > LDAP Server to invoke the configuration wizard.
2 Configure the Global Settings of your LDAP server (you can change these settings
later)—see Figure 4.2, “YaST LDAP Server Configuration” (page 45):
2a Set LDAP to be started.
2b If the LDAP server should announce its services via SLP, check Register at
an SLP Daemon.
2c Configure Firewall Settings.
2d Click Next.
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3 Select the server type: stand-alone server, master server in a replication setup, or
replication (slave) server.
4 Select security options (TLS Settings).
It is strongly recommended to Enable TLS. For more information, see Step
4 (page 49).
WARNING: Password Encryption
Enabling TLS ensures passwords are sent encrypted over the network.
When this option is not enabled, passwords are sent unencrypted.
Also consider to use LDAP over SSL and certificates.
5 Confirm Basic Database Settings with entering an LDAP Administrator
Password and then clicking Next—see Figure 4.2, “YaST LDAP Server
Configuration” (page 45).
6 Check the LDAP Server Configuration Summary and click Finish to exit the configuration wizard.
LDAP—A Directory Service
47
Figure 4.4: YaST LDAP Server Configuration
For changes or additional configuration start the LDAP server module again and
in the left pane expand Global Settings to make subentries visible—see Figure 4.4,
“YaST LDAP Server Configuration” (page 48):
1 With Log Level Settings, configure the degree of logging activity (verbosity) of the
LDAP server. From the predefined list, select or deselect the logging options according to your needs. The more options are enabled, the larger your log files grow.
2 Configure which connection types the server should offer under Allow/Disallow
Features. Choose from:
LDAPv2 Bind Requests
This option enables connection requests (bind requests) from clients using the
previous version of the protocol (LDAPv2).
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Security Guide
Anonymous Bind When Credentials Not Empty
Normally the LDAP server denies any authentication attempts with empty credentials (DN or password). Enabling this option, however, makes it possible to
connect with a password and no DN to establish an anonymous connection.
Unauthenticated Bind When DN Not Empty
Enabling this option makes it possible to connect without authentication
(anonymously) using a DN but no password.
Unauthenticated Update Options to Process
Enabling this option allows non-authenticated (anonymous) update operations.
Access is restricted according to ACLs and other rules.
3 Allow/Disallow Features also lets you configure the server flags. Choose from:
Disable Acceptance of Anonymous Bind Requests
The server will no longer accept anonymous bind requests. Note, that this does
not generally prohibit anonymous directory access.
Disable Simple Bind Authentication
Completely disable Simple Bind authentication.
Disable Forcing Session to Anonymous Status upon StartTLS Operation Receipt
The server will no longer force an authenticated connection back to the anonymous state when receiving the StartTLS operation.
Disallow the StartTLS Operation if Authenticated
The server will disallow the StartTLS operation on already authenticated connections.
4 To configure secure communication between client and server, proceed with TLS
Settings:
4a Activate Enable TLS to enable TLS and SSL encryption of the client/server
communication.
4b Either Import Certificate by specifying the exact path to its location or enable the Use Common Server Certificate. If the Use Common Server Certificate is not available because it has not been created during installation, go
for Launch CA Management Module first— for more information, see Section 17.2, “YaST Modules for CA Management” (page 209).
LDAP—A Directory Service
49
Add Schema files to be included in the server's configuration by selecting Schema
Files in the left part of the dialog. The default selection of schema files applies to the
server providing a source of YaST user account data.
YaST allows to add traditional Schema files (usually with a name ending in
.schema) or LDIF files containing Schema definitions in OpenLDAP's LDIF
Schema format.
Figure 4.5: YaST LDAP Server Database Configuration
To configure the databases managed by your LDAP server, proceed as follows:
1 Select the Databases item in the left part of the dialog.
2 Click Add Database to add a new database.
3 Enter the requested data:
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Security Guide
Base DN
Enter the base DN of your LDAP server.
Administrator DN
Enter the DN of the administrator in charge of the server. If you check Append
Base DN, only provide the cn of the administrator and the system fills in the
rest automatically.
LDAP Administrator Password
Enter the password for the database administrator.
Use This Database as the Default for OpenLDAP Clients
For convenience, check this option if wanted.
4 In the next dialog configure replication settings.
5 In the next dialog, enable enforcement of password policies to provide extra security to your LDAP server:
5a Check Enable Password Policies to be able to specify a password policy.
5b Activate Hash Clear Text Passwords to have clear text passwords be hashed
before they are written to the database whenever they are added or modified.
5c Disclose "Account Locked" Status provides a relevant error message for bind
requests to locked accounts.
WARNING: Locked Accounts in Security Sensitive
Environments
Do not use the Disclose "Account Locked" Status option if your environment is sensitive to security issues, because the “Locked Account” error message provides security-sensitive information that
can be exploited by a potential attacker.
5d Enter the DN of the default policy object. To use a DN other than the one
suggested by YaST, enter your choice. Otherwise, accept the default settings.
LDAP—A Directory Service
51
6 Complete the database configuration by clicking Finish.
If you have not opted for password policies, your server is ready to run at this point.
If you have chosen to enable password policies, proceed with the configuration of the
password policy in detail. If you have chosen a password policy object that does not
yet exist, YaST creates one:
1 Enter the LDAP server password. In the navigation tree below Databases expand
your database object and activate the Password Policy Configuration item.
2 Make sure Enable Password Policies is activated. Then click Edit Policy.
3 Configure the password change policies:
3a Determine the number of passwords stored in the password history. Saved
passwords may not be reused by the user.
3b Determine if users will be able to change their passwords and if they will
need to change their passwords after a reset by the administrator. Require
the old password for password changes (optional).
3c Determine whether and to what extent passwords should be subject to quality checking. Set the minimum password length that must be met before a
password is valid. If you select Accept Uncheckable Passwords, users are allowed to use encrypted passwords, even though the quality checks cannot be
performed. If you opt for Only Accept Checked Passwords only those passwords that pass the quality tests are accepted as valid.
4 Configure the password time-limit policies:
4a Determine the minimum password time-limit (the time that needs to pass
between two valid password changes) and the maximum password time-limit.
4b Determine the time between a password expiration warning and the actual
password expiration.
4c Set the number of postponement uses of an expired password before the
password expires permanently.
5 Configure the lockout policies:
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Security Guide
5a Enable password locking.
5b Determine the number of bind failures that trigger a password lock.
5c Determine the duration of the password lock.
5d Determine the length of time that password failures are kept in the cache
before they are purged.
6 Apply your password policy settings with OK.
To edit a previously created database, select its base DN in the tree to the left. In the
right part of the window, YaST displays a dialog similar to the one used for the creation of a new database (with the main difference that the base DN entry is grayed out
and cannot be changed).
After leaving the LDAP server configuration by selecting Finish, you are ready to go
with a basic working configuration for your LDAP server. To fine-tune this setup,
make use of OpenLDAP's dynamic configuration back-end.
The OpenLDAP's dynamic configuration back-end stores the configuration in an
LDAP database. That database consists of a set of .ldif files in /etc/openl
dap/slapd.d. There is no need to access these files directly. To access the settings you can either use the YaST LDAP server module (the yast2-ldap-server package) or an LDAP client such as ldapmodify or ldapsearch. Find more
LDAP-related configuration and system data in /etc/sysconfig/ldap and /
var/lib/ldap.
For more information on the dynamic configuration of OpenLDAP, see the OpenLDAP Administration Guide.
4.4 Configuring an LDAP Client
with YaST
YaST includes a module to set up LDAP-based user management. If you did not enable this feature during the installation, start the module by selecting Network Services
> LDAP Client. YaST automatically enables any PAM and NSS-related changes as
LDAP—A Directory Service
53
required by LDAP and installs the necessary files. Simply connect your client to the
server and let YaST manage users over LDAP. This basic setup is described in Section 4.4.1, “Configuring Basic Settings” (page 54).
Use the YaST LDAP client to further configure the YaST group and user configuration modules. This includes manipulating the default settings for new users and
groups and the number and nature of the attributes assigned to a user or group.
LDAP user management allows you to assign far more and different attributes to
users and groups than traditional user or group management solutions. This is described in Section 4.4.2, “Configuring the YaST Group and User Administration
Modules” (page 58).
4.4.1 Configuring Basic Settings
The basic LDAP client configuration dialog (Figure 4.6, “YaST: LDAP Client
Configuration” (page 55)) opens during installation if you choose LDAP user
management or when you select Network Services > LDAP Client in the YaST Control
Center in the installed system.
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Security Guide
Figure 4.6: YaST: LDAP Client Configuration
To authenticate users of your machine against an OpenLDAP server and to enable
user management via OpenLDAP, proceed as follows:
1 Click Use LDAP to enable the use of LDAP. Select Use LDAP but Disable Logins
instead if you want to use LDAP for authentication, but do not want other users to
log in to this client.
2 Enter the IP address of the LDAP server to use.
3 Enter the LDAP Base DN to select the search base on the LDAP server. To retrieve
the base DN automatically, click Fetch DN. YaST then checks for any LDAP database on the server address specified above. Choose the appropriate base DN from
the search results given by YaST.
4 If TLS or SSL-protected communication with the server is required, select LDAP
TLS/SSL. Click Download CA Certificate to download a certificate in PEM format
from a URL.
LDAP—A Directory Service
55
5 Select Start Automounter to mount remote directories on your client, such as a remotely managed /home.
6 Select Create Home Directory on Login to have a user's home automatically created
on the first user login.
7 Click OK to apply your settings.
To modify data on the server as administrator, click Advanced Configuration.
The following dialog is split into two tabs. See Figure 4.7, “YaST: Advanced
Configuration” (page 56).
Figure 4.7: YaST: Advanced Configuration
1 In the Client Settings tab, adjust the following settings according to your needs:
1a If the search base for users, passwords, and groups differs from the global
search base specified in the LDAP base DN, enter these different naming
contexts in User Map, Password Map, and Group Map.
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1b Specify the password change protocol. The standard method to use whenever a password is changed is crypt, meaning that password hashes generated by crypt are used. For details on this and other options, refer to the
pam_ldap man page.
1c Specify the LDAP group to use with Group Member Attribute. The default
value for this is member.
1d If a secure connection requires certificate checking, specify where your CA
Certificate File in PEM format is located. Or specify a directory with certificates.
1e If the LDAP server still uses LDAPv2, enable the use of this protocol version by selecting LDAP Version 2.
2 In Administration Settings, adjust the following settings:
2a Set the base for storing your user management data via Configuration Base
DN.
2b Enter the appropriate value for Administrator DN. This DN must
be identical with the rootdn value specified in /etc/openl
dap/slapd.conf to enable this particular user to manipulate data stored on the LDAP server. Enter the full DN (such as
cn=Administrator,dc=example,dc=com) or activate Append Base DN to have the base DN added automatically when you enter
cn=Administrator.
2c Check Create Default Configuration Objects to create the basic configuration objects on the server to enable user management via LDAP.
2d If your client machine needs to act as a file server for home directories
across your network, check Home Directories on This Machine.
2e Use the Password Policy section to select, add, delete, or modify the password policy settings to use. The configuration of password policies with
YaST is part of the LDAP server setup.
2f Click OK to leave the Advanced Configuration, then Finish to apply your
settings.
LDAP—A Directory Service
57
Use Configure User Management Settings to edit entries on the LDAP server. Access
to the configuration modules on the server is then granted according to the ACLs and
ACIs stored on the server. Follow the procedures outlined in Section 4.4.2, “Configuring the YaST Group and User Administration Modules” (page 58).
4.4.2 Configuring the YaST Group and
User Administration Modules
Use the YaST LDAP client to adapt the YaST modules for user and group administration and to extend them as needed. Define templates with default values for the individual attributes to simplify the data registration. The presets created here are stored
as LDAP objects in the LDAP directory. The registration of user data is still done
with the regular YaST modules for user and group management. The registered data is
stored as LDAP objects on the server.
Figure 4.8: YaST: Module Configuration
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The dialog for module configuration (Figure 4.8, “YaST: Module
Configuration” (page 58)) allows the creation of new modules, selection and modification of existing configuration modules, and design and modification of templates
for such modules.
To create a new configuration module, proceed as follows:
1 In the LDAP Client Configuration click Advanced Configuration, then open the Administration Settings tab. Click Configure User Management Settings and enter the
LDAP server credentials.
2 Click New and select the type of module to create. For a user configuration module, select suseUserConfiguration and for a group configuration choose
suseGroupConfiguration.
3 Choose a name for the new template (e.g., userConfig). The content view
shows a table listing all attributes allowed in this module and their assigned values.
4 Accept the preset values or adjust the defaults to use in group and user configurations by selecting the relevant attribute, pressing Edit, and entering the new value. Rename a module by changing the cn attribute of the module. Clicking Delete
deletes the currently selected module.
5 After you click OK, the new module is added to the selection menu.
The YaST modules for group and user administration embed templates with standard values. To edit a template associated with a configuration module, start the
object template configuration (Figure 4.9, “YaST: Configuration of an Object
Template” (page 60)).
1 In the Module Configuration dialog, click Configure Template.
2 Determine the values of the general attributes assigned to this template according to your needs or leave them empty. Empty attributes are deleted on the LDAP
server.
3 Modify, delete, or add new default values for new objects (user or group configuration objects in the LDAP tree).
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59
Figure 4.9: YaST: Configuration of an Object Template
Connect the template to its module by setting the susedefaulttemplate attribute value of the module to the DN of the adapted template.
TIP
The default values for an attribute can be created from other attributes by
using a variable instead of an absolute value. For example, when creating a
new user, cn=%sn %givenName is created automatically from the attribute
values for sn and givenName.
Once all modules and templates are configured correctly and ready to run, new groups
and users can be registered in the usual way with YaST.
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4.5 Configuring LDAP Users and
Groups in YaST
The actual registration of user and group data differs only slightly from the procedure when not using LDAP. The following instructions relate to the administration of
users. The procedure for administering groups is analogous.
1 Access the YaST user administration with Security and Users > User and Group
Management.
2 Use Set Filter to limit the view of users to the LDAP users and enter the password
for Root DN.
3 Click Add to enter the user configuration. A dialog with four tabs opens:
3a Specify username, login, and password in the User Data tab.
3b Check the Details tab for the group membership, login shell, and home directory of the new user. If necessary, change the default to values that better suit your needs. The default values (as well as those of the password settings) can be defined with the procedure described in Section 4.4.2, “Configuring the YaST Group and User Administration Modules” (page 58).
3c Modify or accept the default Password Settings.
3d Enter the Plug-Ins tab, select the LDAP plug-in, and click Launch to configure additional LDAP attributes assigned to the new user (see Figure 4.10,
“YaST: Additional LDAP Settings” (page 62)).
4 Click OK to apply your settings and leave the user configuration.
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61
Figure 4.10: YaST: Additional LDAP Settings
The initial input form of user administration offers LDAP Options. This allows you to
apply LDAP search filters to the set of available users. Alternatively open the module
for configuring LDAP users and groups by selecting LDAP User and Group Configuration.
4.6 Browsing the LDAP Directory
Tree
To conveniently browse the LDAP directory tree and all its entries, use the YaST
LDAP Browser:
1 Log in as root.
2 Start YaST > Network Services > LDAP Browser.
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3 Enter the address of the LDAP server, the Administrator DN, and the password for
the Root DN of this server (if you need both to read and write the data stored on
the server).
Alternatively, choose Anonymous Access and do not provide the password to gain
read access to the directory.
The LDAP Tree tab displays the content of the LDAP directory to which your machine connected. Click to expand each item's submenu.
Figure 4.11: Browsing the LDAP Directory Tree
4 To view any entry in detail, select it in the LDAP Tree view and open the Entry Data tab.
All attributes and values associated with this entry are displayed.
LDAP—A Directory Service
63
Figure 4.12: Browsing the Entry Data
5 To change the value of any of these attributes, select the attribute, click Edit, enter
the new value, click Save, and provide the Root DN password when prompted.
6 Leave the LDAP browser with Close.
4.7 Manually Configuring an LDAP
Server
YaST uses OpenLDAP's dynamic configuration database (back-config) to
store the LDAP server's configuration. For details about the dynamic configuration back-end, see the slapd-config(5) man page or the OpenLDAP Software
2.4 Administrator's Guide located at /usr/share/doc/packages/openl
dap2/guide/admin/guide.html on your system if the openldap2 package
is installed.
TIP: Upgrading an Old OpenLDAP Installation
YaST does not use /etc/openldap/slapd.conf to store the OpenLDAP configuration anymore. In case of a system upgrade, a copy of the original /etc/openldap/slapd.conf file will get created as /etc/openl
dap/slapd.conf.YaSTsave.
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To conveniently access the configuration back-end, you use SASL external authentication. For example, the following ldapsearch command executed as root can
be used to show the complete slapd configuration:
ldapsearch -Y external -H ldapi:/// -b cn=config
4.7.1 Starting and Stopping the Servers
Once the LDAP server is fully configured and all desired entries have been made
according to the pattern described in Section 4.8, “Manually Administering LDAP
Data” (page 65), start the LDAP server as root by entering rcldap start.
To stop the server manually, enter the command rcldap stop. Query the status of
the running LDAP server with rcldap status.
Use the YaST runlevel editor, described in Section “Configuring System Services
(Runlevel) with YaST” (Chapter 9, Booting and Configuring a Linux System, ↑Administration Guide), to have the server started and stopped automatically on system bootup and shutdown. It is also possible to create the corresponding links to the start and
stop scripts with the insserv command from a command prompt as described in
Section “Init Scripts” (Chapter 9, Booting and Configuring a Linux System, ↑Administration Guide).
4.8 Manually Administering LDAP
Data
OpenLDAP offers a series of tools for the administration of data in the LDAP directory. The four most important tools for adding to, deleting from, searching through
and modifying the data stock are explained in this section.
4.8.1 Inserting Data into an LDAP
Directory
Once your LDAP server is correctly configured (it features appropriate entries
for suffix, directory, rootdn, rootpw and index), proceed to entering
records. OpenLDAP offers the ldapadd command for this task. If possible, add
the objects to the database in bundles (for practical reasons). LDAP is able to process
LDAP—A Directory Service
65
the LDIF format (LDAP data interchange format) for this. An LDIF file is a simple
text file that can contain an arbitrary number of attribute and value pairs. The LDIF
file for creating a rough framework for the example in Figure 4.1, “Structure of an
LDAP Directory” (page 42) would look like the one in Example 4.2, “An LDIF
File” (page 66).
IMPORTANT: Encoding of LDIF Files
LDAP works with UTF-8 (Unicode). Umlauts must be encoded correctly. Otherwise, avoid umlauts and other special characters or use iconv to convert
the input to UTF-8.
Example 4.2: An LDIF File
# The Organization
dn: dc=example,dc=com
objectClass: dcObject
objectClass: organization
o: Example dc: example
# The organizational unit development (devel)
dn: ou=devel,dc=example,dc=com
objectClass: organizationalUnit
ou: devel
# The organizational unit documentation (doc)
dn: ou=doc,dc=example,dc=com
objectClass: organizationalUnit
ou: doc
# The organizational unit internal IT (it)
dn: ou=it,dc=example,dc=com
objectClass: organizationalUnit
ou: it
Save the file with the .ldif suffix then pass it to the server with the following command:
ldapadd -x -D dn_of_the_administrator -W -f file.ldif
-x switches off the authentication with SASL in this case. -D declares the user
that calls the operation. The valid DN of the administrator is entered here just
like it has been configured in slapd.conf. In the current example, this is
cn=Administrator,dc=example,dc=com. -W circumvents entering the
password on the command line (in clear text) and activates a separate password
prompt. The -f option passes the filename. See the details of running ldapadd in
Example 4.3, “ldapadd with example.ldif” (page 67).
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Example 4.3: ldapadd with example.ldif
ldapadd -x -D cn=Administrator,dc=example,dc=com -W -f example.ldif
Enter LDAP
adding new
adding new
adding new
adding new
password:
entry "dc=example,dc=com"
entry "ou=devel,dc=example,dc=com"
entry "ou=doc,dc=example,dc=com"
entry "ou=it,dc=example,dc=com"
The user data of individuals can be prepared in separate LDIF files. Example 4.4,
“LDIF Data for Tux” (page 67) adds Tux to the new LDAP directory.
Example 4.4: LDIF Data for Tux
# coworker Tux
dn: cn=Tux Linux,ou=devel,dc=example,dc=com
objectClass: inetOrgPerson
cn: Tux Linux
givenName: Tux
sn: Linux
mail: [email protected]
uid: tux
telephoneNumber: +49 1234 567-8
An LDIF file can contain an arbitrary number of objects. It is possible to pass directory branches (entirely or in part) to the server in one go, as shown in the example of individual objects. If it is necessary to modify some data relatively often, a fine subdivision of single objects is recommended.
4.8.2 Modifying Data in the LDAP
Directory
The tool ldapmodify is provided for modifying the data stock. The easiest way
to do this is to modify the corresponding LDIF file and pass the modified file to the
LDAP server. To change the telephone number of colleague Tux from +49 1234
567-8 to +49 1234 567-10, edit the LDIF file like in Example 4.5, “Modified
LDIF File tux.ldif” (page 67).
Example 4.5: Modified LDIF File tux.ldif
# coworker Tux
dn: cn=Tux Linux,ou=devel,dc=example,dc=com
changetype: modify
replace: telephoneNumber
telephoneNumber: +49 1234 567-10
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67
Import the modified file into the LDAP directory with the following command:
ldapmodify -x -D cn=Administrator,dc=example,dc=com -W -f tux.ldif
Alternatively, pass the attributes to change directly to ldapmodify as follows:
1 Start ldapmodify and enter your password:
ldapmodify -x -D cn=Administrator,dc=example,dc=com -W
Enter LDAP password:
2 Enter the changes while carefully complying with the syntax in the order presented
below:
dn: cn=Tux Linux,ou=devel,dc=example,dc=com
changetype: modify
replace: telephoneNumber
telephoneNumber: +49 1234 567-10
For more information about ldapmodify and its syntax, see the ldapmodify
man page.
4.8.3 Searching or Reading Data from an
LDAP Directory
OpenLDAP provides, with ldapsearch, a command line tool for searching data
within an LDAP directory and reading data from it. This is a simple query:
ldapsearch -x -b dc=example,dc=com "(objectClass=*)"
The -b option determines the search base (the section of the tree within which the
search should be performed). In the current case, this is dc=example,dc=com. To
perform a more finely-grained search in specific subsections of the LDAP directory
(for example, only within the devel department), pass this section to ldapsearch
with -b. -x requests activation of simple authentication. (objectClass=*) declares that all objects contained in the directory should be read. This command option
can be used after the creation of a new directory tree to verify that all entries have
been recorded correctly and the server responds as desired. For more information
about the use of ldapsearch, see the ldapsearch(1) man page.
4.8.4 Deleting Data from an LDAP
Directory
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Delete unwanted entries with ldapdelete. The syntax is similar to that of the other commands. To delete, for example, the complete entry for Tux Linux, issue the
following command:
ldapdelete -x -D cn=Administrator,dc=example,dc=com -W cn=Tux \
Linux,ou=devel,dc=example,dc=com
4.9 For More Information
More complex subjects (like SASL configuration or establishment of a replicating
LDAP server that distributes the workload among multiple slaves) were omitted from
this chapter. Find detailed information about both subjects in the OpenLDAP 2.4
Administrator's Guide—see at “OpenLDAP 2.4 Administrator's Guide” (page 69).
The Web site of the OpenLDAP project offers exhaustive documentation for beginner and advanced LDAP users:
OpenLDAP Faq-O-Matic
A detailed question and answer collection applying to the installation, configuration, and use of OpenLDAP. Find it at http://www.openldap.org/faq/
data/cache/1.html.
Quick Start Guide
Brief step-by-step instructions for installing your first LDAP server. Find it at
http://www.openldap.org/doc/admin24/quickstart.html
or on an installed system in Section 2 of /usr/share/doc/pack
ages/openldap2/guide/admin/guide.html.
OpenLDAP 2.4 Administrator's Guide
A detailed introduction to all important aspects of LDAP configuration, including access controls and encryption. See http://www.openldap.org/
doc/admin24/ or, on an installed system, /usr/share/doc/pack
ages/openldap2/guide/admin/guide.html.
Understanding LDAP
A detailed general introduction to the basic principles of LDAP: http://
www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg244986.pdf.
Printed literature about LDAP:
LDAP—A Directory Service
69
• LDAP System Administration by Gerald Carter (ISBN 1-56592-491-6)
• Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services by Howes, Smith, and Good
(ISBN 0-672-32316-8)
The ultimate reference material for the subject of LDAP are the corresponding RFCs
(request for comments), 2251 to 2256.
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Security Guide
5
Active Directory Support
Active Directory* (AD) is a directory-service based on LDAP, Kerberos, and other
services that is used by Microsoft Windows to manage resources, services, and people. In an MS Windows network, AD provides information about these objects, restricts access to them, and enforces policies. SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server lets you
join existing AD domains and integrate your Linux machine into a Windows environment.
5.1 Integrating Linux and AD
Environments
With a Linux client (configured as an Active Directory client) that is joined to an existing Active Directory domain, benefit from various features not available on a pure
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Linux client:
Browsing Shared Files and Folders with SMB
Both Nautilus (the GNOME file manager) and Dolphin or Konqueror (its KDE
counterparts) support browsing shared resources through SMB.
Sharing Files and Folders with SMB
Both Nautilus, Dolphin, and Konqueror support sharing folders and files as in
Windows.
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71
Accessing and Manipulating User Data on the Windows Server
Through Nautilus and Konqueror, users are able to access their Windows user data and can edit, create, and delete files and folders on the Windows server. Users
can access their data without having to enter their password multiple times.
Offline Authentication
Users are able to log in and access their local data on the Linux machine even if
they are offline or the AD server is unavailable for other reasons.
Windows Password Change
This port of AD support in Linux enforces corporate password policies stored in
Active Directory. The display managers and console support password change
messages and accept your input. You can even use the Linux passwd command
to set Windows passwords.
Single-Sign-On through Kerberized Applications
Many applications of both desktops are Kerberos-enabled (kerberized), which
means they can transparently handle authentication for the user without the need
for password reentry at Web servers, proxies, groupware applications, or other locations.
A brief technical background for most of these features is given in the following section.
5.2 Background Information for
Linux AD Support
Many system components need to interact flawlessly in order to integrate a Linux
client into an existing Windows Active Directory domain. Figure 5.1, “Active Directory Authentication Schema” (page 73) highlights the most prominent ones. The
following sections focus on the underlying processes of the key events in AD server
and client interaction.
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Security Guide
Figure 5.1: Active Directory Authentication Schema
PAM aware applications
kerberized
apps
(gdm, kdm, login)
NSS
PAM
Kerberos
Credential
pam_winbind
Cache
nscd
pam_unix2
nss_compat
nss_winbind
pam_mkhomedir
Kerberos
and various MS protocols
winbindd
LDAP, Kerberos
Offline Cache
Windows DC
(Active Directory)
To communicate with the directory service, the client needs to share at least two protocols with the server:
LDAP
LDAP is a protocol optimized for managing directory information. A Windows
domain controller with AD can use the LDAP protocol to exchange directory
information with the clients. To learn more about LDAP in general and about
the open source port of it, OpenLDAP, refer to Chapter 4, LDAP—A Directory
Service (page 39).
Active Directory Support
73
Kerberos
Kerberos is a third-party trusted authentication service. All its clients trust
Kerberos's authorization of another client's identity, enabling kerberized
single-sign-on (SSO) solutions. Windows supports a Kerberos implementation, making Kerberos SSO possible even with Linux clients. To learn more
about Kerberos in Linux, refer to Chapter 6, Network Authentication with
Kerberos (page 85).
The following client components process account and authentication data:
Winbind
The most central part of this solution is the winbind daemon that is a part of the
Samba project and handles all communication with the AD server.
NSS (Name Service Switch)
NSS routines provide name service information. Naming service for both users
and groups is provided by nss_winbind. This module directly interacts with
the winbind daemon.
PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules)
User authentication for AD users is done by the pam_winbind module.
The creation of user homes for the AD users on the Linux client is handled by
pam_mkhomedir. The pam_winbind module directly interacts with winbindd. To learn more about PAM in general, refer to Chapter 2, Authentication
with PAM (page 17).
Applications that are PAM-aware, like the login routines and the GNOME and KDE
display managers, interact with the PAM and NSS layer to authenticate against the
Windows server. Applications supporting Kerberos authentication (such as file managers, Web browsers, or e-mail clients) use the Kerberos credential cache to access
user's Kerberos tickets, making them part of the SSO framework.
5.2.1 Domain Join
During domain join, the server and the client establish a secure relation. On the client,
the following tasks need to be performed to join the existing LDAP and Kerberos
SSO environment provided by the Window domain controller. The entire join process
is handled by the YaST Domain Membership module, which can be run during installation or in the installed system:
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Security Guide
1 The Windows domain controller providing both LDAP and KDC (Key Distribution
Center) services is located.
2 A machine account for the joining client is created in the directory service.
3 An initial ticket granting ticket (TGT) is obtained for the client and stored in its local Kerberos credential cache. The client needs this TGT to get further tickets allowing it to contact other services, like contacting the directory server for LDAP
queries.
4 NSS and PAM configurations are adjusted to enable the client to authenticate
against the domain controller.
During client boot, the winbind daemon is started and retrieves the initial Kerberos
ticket for the machine account. winbindd automatically refreshes the machine's ticket
to keep it valid. To keep track of the current account policies, winbindd periodically
queries the domain controller.
5.2.2 Domain Login and User Homes
The login managers of GNOME and KDE (GDM and KDM) have been extended to
allow the handling of AD domain login. Users can choose to log in to the primary domain the machine has joined or to one of the trusted domains with which the domain
controller of the primary domain has established a trust relationship.
User authentication is mediated by a number of PAM modules as described in Section 5.2, “Background Information for Linux AD Support” (page 72). The
pam_winbind module used to authenticate clients against Active Directory or NT4
domains is fully aware of Windows error conditions that might prohibit a user's login.
The Windows error codes are translated into appropriate user-readable error messages
that PAM gives at login through any of the supported methods (GDM, KDM, console,
and SSH):
Password has expired
The user sees a message stating that the password has expired and needs to be
changed. The system prompts for a new password and informs the user if the new
password does not comply with corporate password policies (for example the
password is too short, too simple, or already in the history). If a user's password
change fails, the reason is shown and a new password prompt is given.
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75
Account disabled
The user sees an error message stating that the account has been disabled and to
contact the system administrator.
Account locked out
The user sees an error message stating that the account has been locked and to
contact the system administrator.
Password has to be changed
The user can log in but receives a warning that the password needs to be changed
soon. This warning is sent three days before that password expires. After expiration, the user cannot log in.
Invalid workstation
When a user is restricted to specific workstations and the current SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server machine is not among them, a message appears that this user
cannot log in from this workstation.
Invalid logon hours
When a user is only allowed to log in during working hours and tries to log in outside working hours, a message informs the user that logging in is not possible at
that time.
Account expired
An administrator can set an expiration time for a specific user account. If that
user tries to log in after expiration, the user gets a message that the account has
expired and cannot be used to log in.
During a successful authentication, pam_winbind acquires a ticket granting ticket
(TGT) from the Kerberos server of Active Directory and stores it in the user's credential cache. It also renews the TGT in the background, requiring no user interaction.
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server supports local home directories for AD users. If configured through YaST as described in Section 5.3, “Configuring a Linux Client for
Active Directory” (page 77), user homes are created at the first login of a Windows (AD) user into the Linux client. These home directories look and feel entirely
the same as standard Linux user home directories and work independently of the AD
domain controller. Using a local user home, it is possible to access a user's data on this
machine (even when the AD server is disconnected) as long as the Linux client has
been configured to perform offline authentication.
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5.2.3 Offline Service and Policy Support
Users in a corporate environment must have the ability to become roaming users (for
example, to switch networks or even work disconnected for some time). To enable
users to log in to a disconnected machine, extensive caching was integrated into the
winbind daemon. The winbind daemon enforces password policies even in the offline
state. It tracks the number of failed login attempts and reacts according to the policies
configured in Active Directory. Offline support is disabled by default and must be explicitly enabled in the YaST Domain Membership module.
When the domain controller has become unavailable, the user can still access network
resources (other than the AD server itself) with valid Kerberos tickets that have been
acquired before losing the connection (as in Windows). Password changes cannot be
processed unless the domain controller is online. While disconnected from the AD
server, a user cannot access any data stored on this server. When a workstation has become disconnected from the network entirely and connects to the corporate network
again later, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server acquires a new Kerberos ticket as soon as
the user has locked and unlocked the desktop (for example, using a desktop screen
saver).
5.3 Configuring a Linux Client for
Active Directory
Before your client can join an AD domain, some adjustments must be made to your
network setup to ensure the flawless interaction of client and server.
DNS
Configure your client machine to use a DNS server that can forward DNS requests to the AD DNS server. Alternatively, configure your machine to use the
AD DNS server as the name service data source.
NTP
To succeed with Kerberos authentication, the client must have its time set accurately. It is highly recommended to use a central NTP time server for this purpose
(this can be also the NTP server running on your Active Directory domain controller). If the clock skew between your Linux host and the domain controller exceeds a certain limit, Kerberos authentication fails and the client is logged in using the weaker NTLM (NT LAN Manager) authentication. For more details about
Active Directory Support
77
using active directory for time synchronization, see Procedure 5.1, “Joining an
AD Domain” (page 78).
Firewall
To browse your network neighborhood, either disable the firewall entirely or
mark the interface used for browsing as part of the internal zone.
To change the firewall settings on your client, log in as root and start the YaST
firewall module. Select Interfaces. Select your network interface from the list of
interfaces and click Change. Select Internal Zone and apply your settings with OK.
Leave the firewall settings with Next > Finish. To disable the firewall, just check
the Disable Firewall Automatic Starting option, and leave the firewall module with
Next > Finish.
AD Account
You cannot log in to an AD domain unless the AD administrator has provided you
with a valid user account for that domain. Use the AD username and password to
log in to the AD domain from your Linux client.
Join an existing AD domain during installation (or by later activating SMB user authentication with YaST in the installed system). The domain join during installation is
covered in Section “User Authentication Method” (Chapter 6, Installation with YaST,
↑Deployment Guide).
IMPORTANT: Domain Name
Joining a domain may not succeed if the domain name ends with .local.
Names ending in .local cause conflicts with Multicast DNS (MDNS) where
.local is reserved for link-local hostnames.
NOTE
Currently only a domain administrator account, such as Administrator,
can join SUSE Linux Enterprise Server into Active Directory.
To join an AD domain in a running system, proceed as follows:
Procedure 5.1: Joining an AD Domain
1 Log in as root and start YaST.
2 Start Network Services > Windows Domain Membership.
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3 Enter the domain to join at Domain or Workgroup in the Windows Domain Membership screen (see Figure 5.2, “Determining Windows Domain
Membership” (page 79)). If the DNS settings on your host are properly integrated with the Windows DNS server, enter the AD domain name in its DNS
format (mydomain.mycompany.com). If you enter the short name of your
domain (also known as the pre–Windows 2000 domain name), YaST must rely on NetBIOS name resolution instead of DNS to find the correct domain controller.
Figure 5.2: Determining Windows Domain Membership
4 Check Also Use SMB Information for Linux Authentication to use the SMB
source for Linux authentication.
5 Check Create Home Directory on Login to automatically create a local home directory for your AD user on the Linux machine.
6 Check Offline Authentication to allow your domain users to log in even if the
AD server is temporarily unavailable, or if you do not have a network connection.
7 Select Expert Settings, if you want to change the UID and GID ranges for the
Samba users and groups. Let DHCP retrieve the WINS server only if you need
it. This is the case when some of your machines are resolved only by the WINS
system.
Active Directory Support
79
8 Configure NTP time synchronization for your AD environment by selecting
NTP Configuration and entering an appropriate server name or IP address. This
step is obsolete if you have already entered the appropriate settings in the standalone YaST NTP configuration module.
9 Click OK and confirm the domain join when prompted for it.
10 Provide the password for the Windows administrator on the AD server and click
OK (see Figure 5.3, “Providing Administrator Credentials” (page 80)).
Figure 5.3: Providing Administrator Credentials
After you have joined the AD domain, you can log in to it from your workstation using the display manager of your desktop or the console.
5.4 Logging In to an AD Domain
Provided your machine has been configured to authenticate against Active Directory and you have a valid Windows user identity, you can log in to your machine using
the AD credentials. Login is supported for both desktop environments (GNOME and
KDE), the console, SSH, and any other PAM-aware application.
IMPORTANT: Offline Authentication
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server supports offline authentication, allowing you
to log in to your client machine even when it is offline. See Section 5.2.3, “Offline Service and Policy Support” (page 77) for details.
5.4.1 GDM and KDM
To authenticate a GNOME client machine against an AD server, proceed as follows:
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1 Select the domain.
2 Enter your Windows username and press Enter.
3 Enter your Windows password and press Enter.
To authenticate a KDE client machine against an AD server, proceed as follows:
1 Select the domain.
2 Enter your Windows username.
3 Enter your Windows password and press Enter.
If configured to do so, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server creates a user home directory
on the local machine on the first login of each AD authenticated user. This allows you
to benefit from the AD support of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server while still having a
fully functional Linux machine at your disposal.
5.4.2 Console Login
As well as logging into the AD client machine using a graphical front-end, you can log
in using the text-based console login or even remotely using SSH.
To log in to your AD client from a console, enter DOMAIN\user at the login:
prompt and provide the password.
To remotely log in to your AD client machine using SSH, proceed as follows:
1 At the login prompt, enter:
ssh DOMAIN\\user@hostname
The \ domain and login delimiter is escaped with another \ sign.
2 Provide the user's password.
5.5 Changing Passwords
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server has the ability to help a user choose a suitable new
password that meets the corporate security policy. The underlying PAM module reActive Directory Support
81
trieves the current password policy settings from the domain controller, informing the
user about the specific password quality requirements a user account typically has by
means of a message on login. Like its Windows counterpart, SUSE Linux Enterprise
Server presents a message describing:
• Password history settings
• Minimum password length requirements
• Minimum password age
• Password complexity
The password change process cannot succeed unless all requirements have been successfully met. Feedback about the password status is given both through the display
managers and the console.
GDM and KDM provide feedback about password expiration and the prompt for new
passwords in an interactive mode. To change passwords in the display managers, just
provide the password information when prompted.
To change your Windows password, you can use the standard Linux utility, passwd, instead of having to manipulate this data on the server. To change your Windows
password, proceed as follows:
1 Log in at the console.
2 Enter passwd.
3 Enter your current password when prompted.
4 Enter the new password.
5 Reenter the new password for confirmation. If your new password does not comply
with the policies on the Windows server, this feedback is given to you and you are
prompted for another password.
To change your Windows password from the GNOME desktop, proceed as follows:
1 Click the Computer icon on the left edge of the panel.
2 Select Control Center.
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3 From the Personal section, select About Me > Change Password.
4 Enter your old password.
5 Enter and confirm the new password.
6 Leave the dialog with Close to apply your settings.
To change your Windows password from the KDE desktop, proceed as follows:
1 Select Configure Desktop from the main menu.
2 Select About Me from the Personal section.
3 Click Password & User Account.
4 Click Change Password.
5 Enter your current password.
6 Enter and confirm the new password and apply your settings with OK.
7 Leave the configuration dialog with File > Quit.
Active Directory Support
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Network Authentication
with Kerberos
6
An open network provides no means of ensuring that a workstation can identify its
users properly, except through the usual password mechanisms. In common installations, the user must enter the password each time a service inside the network is accessed. Kerberos provides an authentication method with which a user registers only
once and is trusted in the complete network for the rest of the session. To have a secure network, the following requirements must be met:
• Have all users prove their identity for each desired service and make sure that no
one can take the identity of someone else.
• Make sure that each network server also proves its identity. Otherwise an attacker
might be able to impersonate the server and obtain sensitive information transmitted to the server. This concept is called mutual authentication, because the client authenticates to the server and vice versa.
Kerberos helps you meet these requirements by providing strongly encrypted authentication. Only the basic principles of Kerberos are discussed here. For detailed technical instruction, refer to the Kerberos documentation.
6.1 Kerberos Terminology
The following glossary defines some Kerberos terminology.
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credential
Users or clients need to present some kind of credentials that authorize them to
request services. Kerberos knows two kinds of credentials—tickets and authenticators.
ticket
A ticket is a per-server credential used by a client to authenticate at a server from
which it is requesting a service. It contains the name of the server, the client's
name, the client's Internet address, a time stamp, a lifetime, and a random session
key. All this data is encrypted using the server's key.
authenticator
Combined with the ticket, an authenticator is used to prove that the client presenting a ticket is really the one it claims to be. An authenticator is built using the
client's name, the workstation's IP address, and the current workstation's time, all
encrypted with the session key known only to the client and the relevant server.
An authenticator can only be used once, unlike a ticket. A client can build an authenticator itself.
principal
A Kerberos principal is a unique entity (a user or service) to which it can assign a
ticket. A principal consists of the following components:
• Primary—the first part of the principal, which can be the same as your
username in the case of a user.
• Instance—some optional information characterizing the primary. This
string is separated from the primary by a /.
• Realm—this specifies your Kerberos realm. Normally, your realm is your
domain name in uppercase letters.
mutual authentication
Kerberos ensures that both client and server can be sure of each other's identity.
They share a session key, which they can use to communicate securely.
session key
Session keys are temporary private keys generated by Kerberos. They are known
to the client and used to encrypt the communication between the client and the
server for which it requested and received a ticket.
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replay
Almost all messages sent in a network can be eavesdropped, stolen, and resent.
In the Kerberos context, this would be most dangerous if an attacker manages to
obtain your request for a service containing your ticket and authenticator. The attacker could then try to resend it (replay) to impersonate you. However, Kerberos
implements several mechanisms to deal with this problem.
server or service
Service is used to refer to a specific action to perform. The process behind this action is referred to as a server.
6.2 How Kerberos Works
Kerberos is often called a third party trusted authentication service, which means all
its clients trust Kerberos's judgment of another client's identity. Kerberos keeps a
database of all its users and their private keys.
To ensure Kerberos is working correctly, run both the authentication and ticket-granting server on a dedicated machine. Make sure that only the administrator can access
this machine physically and over the network. Reduce the (networking) services running on it to the absolute minimum—do not even run sshd.
6.2.1 First Contact
Your first contact with Kerberos is quite similar to any login procedure at a normal
networking system. Enter your username. This piece of information and the name of
the ticket-granting service are sent to the authentication server (Kerberos). If the authentication server knows you, it generates a random session key for further use between your client and the ticket-granting server. Now the authentication server prepares a ticket for the ticket-granting server. The ticket contains the following information—all encrypted with a session key only the authentication server and the ticket-granting server know:
• The names of both, the client and the ticket-granting server
• The current time
• A lifetime assigned to this ticket
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• The client's IP address
• The newly-generated session key
This ticket is then sent back to the client together with the session key, again in encrypted form, but this time the private key of the client is used. This private key is only known to Kerberos and the client, because it is derived from your user password.
Now that the client has received this response, you are prompted for your password.
This password is converted into the key that can decrypt the package sent by the authentication server. The package is “unwrapped” and password and key are erased
from the workstation's memory. As long as the lifetime given to the ticket used to obtain other tickets does not expire, your workstation can prove your identity.
6.2.2 Requesting a Service
To request a service from any server in the network, the client application needs to
prove its identity to the server. Therefore, the application generates an authenticator.
An authenticator consists of the following components:
• The client's principal
• The client's IP address
• The current time
• A checksum (chosen by the client)
All this information is encrypted using the session key that the client has already received for this special server. The authenticator and the ticket for the server are sent
to the server. The server uses its copy of the session key to decrypt the authenticator, which gives it all the information needed about the client requesting its service, to
compare it to that contained in the ticket. The server checks if the ticket and the authenticator originate from the same client.
Without any security measures implemented on the server side, this stage of the
process would be an ideal target for replay attacks. Someone could try to resend a request stolen off the net some time before. To prevent this, the server does not accept
any request with a time stamp and ticket received previously. In addition to that, a request with a time stamp differing too much from the time the request is received is ignored.
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6.2.3 Mutual Authentication
Kerberos authentication can be used in both directions. It is not only a question of the
client being the one it claims to be. The server should also be able to authenticate itself to the client requesting its service. Therefore, it sends an authenticator itself. It
adds one to the checksum it received in the client's authenticator and encrypts it with
the session key, which is shared between it and the client. The client takes this response as a proof of the server's authenticity and they both start cooperating.
6.2.4 Ticket Granting—Contacting All
Servers
Tickets are designed to be used for one server at a time. This implies that you have
to get a new ticket each time you request another service. Kerberos implements a
mechanism to obtain tickets for individual servers. This service is called the “ticket-granting service”. The ticket-granting service is a service (like any other service
mentioned before) and uses the same access protocols that have already been outlined.
Any time an application needs a ticket that has not already been requested, it contacts
the ticket-granting server. This request consists of the following components:
• The requested principal
• The ticket-granting ticket
• An authenticator
Like any other server, the ticket-granting server now checks the ticket-granting ticket and the authenticator. If they are considered valid, the ticket-granting server builds
a new session key to be used between the original client and the new server. Then the
ticket for the new server is built, containing the following information:
• The client's principal
• The server's principal
• The current time
• The client's IP address
• The newly-generated session key
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The new ticket has a lifetime, which is either the remaining lifetime of the ticket-granting ticket or the default for the service. The lesser of both values is assigned.
The client receives this ticket and the session key, which are sent by the ticket-granting service, but this time the answer is encrypted with the session key that came with
the original ticket-granting ticket. The client can decrypt the response without requiring the user's password when a new service is contacted. Kerberos can thus acquire
ticket after ticket for the client without bothering the user.
6.2.5 Compatibility to Windows 2000
Windows 2000 contains a Microsoft implementation of Kerberos 5. SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server uses the MIT implementation of Kerberos 5, find useful information and guidance in the MIT documentation at Section 6.5, “For More
Information” (page 111).
6.3 Users' View of Kerberos
Ideally, a user's one and only contact with Kerberos happens during login at the workstation. The login process includes obtaining a ticket-granting ticket. At logout, a
user's Kerberos tickets are automatically destroyed, which makes it difficult for anyone else to impersonate this user. The automatic expiration of tickets can lead to a
somewhat awkward situation when a user's login session lasts longer than the maximum lifespan given to the ticket-granting ticket (a reasonable setting is 10 hours).
However, the user can get a new ticket-granting ticket by running kinit. Enter the
password again and Kerberos obtains access to desired services without additional authentication. To get a list of all the tickets silently acquired for you by Kerberos, run
klist.
Here is a short list of some applications that use Kerberos authentication. These applications can be found under /usr/lib/mit/bin or /usr/lib/mit/sbin after installing the package krb5-apps-clients. They all have the full functionality of their common UNIX and Linux brothers plus the additional bonus of transparent
authentication managed by Kerberos:
• telnet, telnetd
• rlogin
• rsh, rcp, rshd
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• ftp, ftpd
• ksu
You no longer have to enter your password for using these applications because Kerberos has already proven your identity. ssh, if compiled with Kerberos support, can
even forward all the tickets acquired for one workstation to another one. If you use
ssh to log in to another workstation, ssh makes sure that the encrypted contents of the
tickets are adjusted to the new situation. Simply copying tickets between workstations
is not sufficient because the ticket contains workstation-specific information (the
IP address). XDM, GDM, and KDM offer Kerberos support, too. Read more about
the Kerberos network applications in Kerberos V5 UNIX User's Guide at http://
web.mit.edu/kerberos.
6.4 Installing and Administering
Kerberos
A Kerberos environment consists of several different components. A key distribution
center (KDC) holds the central database with all Kerberos-relevant data. All clients
rely on the KDC for proper authentication across the network. Both the KDC and the
clients need to be configured to match your setup:
General Preparations
Check your network setup and make sure it meets the minimum requirements
outlined in Section 6.4.1, “Kerberos Network Topology” (page 92). Choose
an appropriate realm for your Kerberos setup, see Section 6.4.2, “Choosing the
Kerberos Realms” (page 93). Carefully set up the machine that is to serve
as the KDC and apply tight security, see Section 6.4.3, “Setting Up the KDC
Hardware” (page 94). Set up a reliable time source in your network to make
sure all tickets contain valid timestamps, see Section 6.4.4, “Configuring Time
Synchronization” (page 95).
Basic Configuration
Configure the KDC and the clients, see Section 6.4.5, “Configuring
the KDC” (page 96) and Section 6.4.6, “Configuring Kerberos
Clients” (page 98). Enable remote administration for your Kerberos service, so you do not need physical access to your KDC machine, see Section 6.4.7,
“Configuring Remote Kerberos Administration” (page 104). Create service
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principals for every service in your realm, see Section 6.4.8, “Creating Kerberos
Service Principals” (page 105).
Enabling Kerberos Authentication
Various services in your network can make use of Kerberos. To add Kerberos
password-checking to applications using PAM, proceed as outlined in Section 6.4.9, “Enabling PAM Support for Kerberos” (page 107). To configure SSH or LDAP with Kerberos authentication, proceed as outlined in Section 6.4.10, “Configuring SSH for Kerberos Authentication” (page 107) and
Section 6.4.11, “Using LDAP and Kerberos” (page 108).
6.4.1 Kerberos Network Topology
Any Kerberos environment must meet the following requirements to be fully functional:
• Provide a DNS server for name resolution across your network, so clients and
servers can locate each other. Refer to Chapter 24, The Domain Name System (↑Administration Guide) for information on DNS setup.
• Provide a time server in your network. Using exact time stamps is crucial to a Kerberos setup, because valid Kerberos tickets must contain correct time stamps. Refer to Chapter 23, Time Synchronization with NTP (↑Administration Guide) for information on NTP setup.
• Provide a key distribution center (KDC) as the center piece of the Kerberos architecture. It holds the Kerberos database. Use the tightest possible security policy on
this machine to prevent any attacks on this machine compromising your entire infrastructure.
• Configure the client machines to use Kerberos authentication.
The following figure depicts a simple example network with just the minimum components needed to build a Kerberos infrastructure. Depending on the size and topology of your deployment, your setup may vary.
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Figure 6.1: Kerberos Network Topology
TIP: Configuring Subnet Routing
For a setup similar to the one in Figure 6.1, “Kerberos Network
Topology” (page 93), configure routing between the two subnets
(192.168.1.0/24 and 192.168.2.0/24). Refer to Section “Configuring
Routing” (Chapter 21, Basic Networking, ↑Administration Guide) for more information on configuring routing with YaST.
6.4.2 Choosing the Kerberos Realms
The domain of a Kerberos installation is called a realm and is identified by a name,
such as EXAMPLE.COM or simply ACCOUNTING. Kerberos is case-sensitive, so
example.com is actually a different realm than EXAMPLE.COM. Use the case you
prefer. It is common practice, however, to use uppercase realm names.
It is also a good idea to use your DNS domain name (or a subdomain, such as
ACCOUNTING.EXAMPLE.COM). As shown below, your life as an administrator can
be much easier if you configure your Kerberos clients to locate the KDC and other
Kerberos services via DNS. To do so, it is helpful if your realm name is a subdomain
of your DNS domain name.
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Unlike the DNS name space, Kerberos is not hierarchical. You cannot set up a realm
named EXAMPLE.COM, have two “subrealms” named DEVELOPMENT and ACCOUNTING underneath it, and expect the two subordinate realms to somehow inherit principals from EXAMPLE.COM. Instead, you would have three separate realms
for which you would have to configure crossrealm authentication for users from one
realm to interact with servers or other users from another realm.
For the sake of simplicity, let us assume you are setting up just one realm for your entire organization. For the remainder of this section, the realm name EXAMPLE.COM
is used in all examples.
6.4.3 Setting Up the KDC Hardware
The first thing required to use Kerberos is a machine that acts as the key distribution
center, or KDC for short. This machine holds the entire Kerberos user database with
passwords and all information.
The KDC is the most important part of your security infrastructure—if someone
breaks into it, all user accounts and all of your infrastructure protected by Kerberos is
compromised. An attacker with access to the Kerberos database can impersonate any
principal in the database. Tighten security for this machine as much as possible:
1 Put the server machine into a physically secured location, such as a locked server
room to which only a very few people have access.
2 Do not run any network applications on it except the KDC. This includes servers
and clients—for example, the KDC should not import any file systems via NFS or
use DHCP to retrieve its network configuration.
3 Install a minimal system first then check the list of installed packages and remove
any unneeded packages. This includes servers, such as inetd, portmap, and cups, as
well as anything X-based. Even installing an SSH server should be considered a potential security risk.
4 No graphical login is provided on this machine as an X server is a potential security
risk. Kerberos provides its own administration interface.
5 Configure /etc/nsswitch.conf to use only local files for user and group
lookup. Change the lines for passwd and group to look like this:
passwd:
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files
group:
files
Edit the passwd, group, and shadow files in /etc and remove the lines that
start with a + character (these are for NIS lookups).
6 Disable all user accounts except root's account by editing /etc/shadow and
replacing the hashed passwords with * or ! characters.
6.4.4 Configuring Time Synchronization
To use Kerberos successfully, make sure that all system clocks within your organization are synchronized within a certain range. This is important because Kerberos protects against replayed credentials. An attacker might be able to observe Kerberos credentials on the network and reuse them to attack the server. Kerberos employs several defenses to prevent this. One of them is that it puts time stamps into its tickets. A
server receiving a ticket with a time stamp that differs from the current time rejects
the ticket.
Kerberos allows a certain leeway when comparing time stamps. However, computer
clocks can be very inaccurate in keeping time—it is not unheard of for PC clocks to
lose or gain half an hour over the course of a week. For this reason, configure all hosts
on the network to synchronize their clocks with a central time source.
A simple way to do so is by installing an NTP time server on one machine and having all clients synchronize their clocks with this server. Do this either by running an
NTP daemon in client mode on all these machines or by running ntpdate once a
day from all clients (this solution probably works for a small number of clients only). The KDC itself needs to be synchronized to the common time source as well. Because running an NTP daemon on this machine would be a security risk, it is probably a good idea to do this by running ntpdate via a cron entry. To configure your machine as an NTP client, proceed as outlined in Section “Configuring an NTP Client
with YaST” (Chapter 23, Time Synchronization with NTP, ↑Administration Guide).
A different way to secure the time service and still use the NTP daemon is to attach a
hardware reference clock to a dedicated NTP server as well as an additional hardware
reference clock to the KDC.
It is also possible to adjust the maximum deviation Kerberos allows when checking time stamps. This value (called clock skew) can be set in the krb5.conf as described in Section “Adjusting the Clock Skew” (page 103).
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6.4.5 Configuring the KDC
This section covers the initial configuration and installation of the KDC, including the
creation of an administrative principal. This procedure consists of several steps:
1 Install the RPMs On a machine designated as the KDC, install the following
software packages: krb5, krb5-server and krb5-client packages.
2 Adjust the Configuration Files The /etc/krb5.conf and /var/lib/
kerberos/krb5kdc/kdc.conf configuration files must be adjusted for your
scenario. These files contain all information on the KDC.
3 Create the Kerberos Database Kerberos keeps a database of all principal identifiers and the secret keys of all principals that need to be authenticated. Refer to
Section 6.4.5.1, “Setting Up the Database” (page 96) for details.
4 Adjust the ACL Files: Add Administrators The Kerberos database on the
KDC can be managed remotely. To prevent unauthorized principals from tampering with the database, Kerberos uses access control lists. You must explicitly enable remote access for the administrator principal to enable him to manage the database. The Kerberos ACL file is located under /var/lib/ker
beros/krb5kdc/kadm5.acl. Refer to Section 6.4.7, “Configuring Remote
Kerberos Administration” (page 104) for details.
5 Adjust the Kerberos Database: Add Administrators You need at least
one administrative principal to run and administer Kerberos. This principal
must be added before starting the KDC. Refer to Section 6.4.5.2, “Creating a
Principal” (page 97) for details.
6 Start the Kerberos Daemon Once the KDC software is installed and properly
configured, start the Kerberos daemon to provide Kerberos service for your realm.
Refer to Section 6.4.5.3, “Starting the KDC” (page 98) for details.
7 Create a Principal for Yourself You need a principal for yourself. Refer to Section 6.4.5.2, “Creating a Principal” (page 97) for details.
6.4.5.1 Setting Up the Database
Your next step is to initialize the database where Kerberos keeps all information about
principals. Set up the database master key, which is used to protect the database from
accidental disclosure (in particular if it is backed up to tape). The master key is de96
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rived from a pass phrase and is stored in a file called the stash file. This is so you do
not need to enter the password every time the KDC is restarted. Make sure that you
choose a good pass phrase, such as a sentence from a book opened to a random page.
When you make tape backups of the Kerberos database (/var/lib/ker
beros/krb5kdc/principal), do not back up the stash file (which is in /var/
lib/kerberos/krb5kdc/.k5.EXAMPLE.COM). Otherwise, everyone able
to read the tape could also decrypt the database. Therefore, keep a copy of the pass
phrase in a safe or some other secure location, because you will need it to restore your
database from backup tape after a crash.
To create the stash file and the database, run:
kdb5_util create -r EXAMPLE.COM -s
You will see the following output:
Initializing database '/var/lib/kerberos/krb5kdc/principal' for realm
'EXAMPLE.COM',
master key name 'K/[email protected]'
You will be prompted for the database Master Password.
It is important that you NOT FORGET this password.
Enter KDC database master key:
Re-enter KDC database master key to verify:
Type the master password.
Type the password again.
To verify, use the list command:
kadmin.local
kadmin> listprincs
You will see several principals in the database, which are for internal use by Kerberos:
K/[email protected]
kadmin/[email protected]
kadmin/[email protected]
krbtgt/[email protected]
6.4.5.2 Creating a Principal
Create two Kerberos principals for yourself: one normal principal for everyday work
and one for administrative tasks relating to Kerberos. Assuming your login name is
geeko, proceed as follows:
kadmin.local
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kadmin> ank geeko
You will see the following output:
[email protected]'s Password:
Verifying password:
Type geeko's password.
Type geeko's password again.
Next, create another principal named geeko/admin by typing ank geeko/admin at the kadmin prompt. The admin suffixed to your username is a role. Later,
use this role when administering the Kerberos database. A user can have several roles
for different purposes. Roles are basically completely different accounts with similar
names.
6.4.5.3 Starting the KDC
Start the KDC daemon and the kadmin daemon. To start the daemons manually, enter rckrb5kdc start and rckadmind start. Also make sure that KDC and
kadmind are started by default when the server machine is rebooted with the command insserv krb5kdc and insserv kadmind or use the YaST runlevel editor.
6.4.6 Configuring Kerberos Clients
Once the supporting infrastructure is in place (DNS, NTP) and the KDC has been
properly configured and started, configure the client machines. You can either use
YaST to configure a Kerberos client or use one of the two manual approaches described below.
6.4.6.1 Configuring a Kerberos Client with YaST
Rather than manually editing all relevant configuration files when configuring a Kerberos client, let YaST do the job for you. You can either perform the client configuration during the installation of your machine or in the installed system as follows:
1 Log in as root and select Network Services > Kerberos Client (Figure 6.2, “YaST:
Basic Configuration of a Kerberos Client” (page 99)).
2 Select Use Kerberos.
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3 To configure a DNS-based Kerberos client, proceed as follows:
3a DNS-Based Static Kerberos Client
NOTE: Using DNS Support
The Use DNS option cannot be selected if the DNS server does not
provide such data.
3b Click Advanced Settings to configure details on ticket-related issues,
OpenSSH support, time synchronization, and extended PAM configurations.
4 To configure a static Kerberos client, proceed as follows:
4a Set Default Domain, Default Realm, and KDC Server Address to the values
that match your setup.
4b Click Advanced Settings to configure details on ticket-related issues,
OpenSSH support, time synchronization, and extended PAM configurations.
Figure 6.2: YaST: Basic Configuration of a Kerberos Client
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To configure ticket-related options in the Advanced Settings dialog (Figure 6.3,
“YaST: Advanced Configuration of a Kerberos Client” (page 101)), choose from
the following options:
• Specify the Default Ticket Lifetime and the Default Renewable Lifetime in days,
hours, or minutes (using the units of measurement d, h, and m, with no blank space
between the value and the unit).
• To forward your complete identity (to use your tickets on other hosts), select Forwardable.
• Enable the transfer of certain tickets by selecting Proxiable.
• Enable Kerberos authentication support for your OpenSSH client by selecting the
corresponding check box. The client then uses Kerberos tickets to authenticate with
the SSH server.
• Exclude a range of user accounts from using Kerberos authentication by providing
a value for the Minimum UID that a user of this feature must have. For instance,
you may want to exclude the system administrator (root).
• Use Clock Skew to set a value for the allowable difference between the time stamps
and your host's system time.
• To keep the system time in sync with an NTP server, you can also set up the
host as an NTP client by selecting NTP Configuration, which opens the YaST
NTP client dialog that is described in Section “Configuring an NTP Client with
YaST” (Chapter 23, Time Synchronization with NTP, ↑Administration Guide). After
finishing the configuration, YaST performs all the necessary changes and the Kerberos client is ready to use.
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Figure 6.3: YaST: Advanced Configuration of a Kerberos Client
For more information about the configuration of Expert PAM Settings and PAM
Services tabs, see the official documentation referenced in Section 6.5, “For More
Information” (page 111) and the manual page man 5 krb5.conf, which is part
of the krb5-doc package.
6.4.6.2 Manually Configuring Kerberos Clients
When configuring Kerberos, there are basically two approaches you can take—static configuration in the /etc/krb5.conf file or dynamic configuration with DNS.
With DNS configuration, Kerberos applications try to locate the KDC services using
DNS records. With static configuration, add the hostnames of your KDC server to
krb5.conf (and update the file whenever you move the KDC or reconfigure your
realm in other ways).
DNS-based configuration is generally a lot more flexible and the amount of configuration work per machine is a lot less. However, it requires that your realm name
is either the same as your DNS domain or a subdomain of it. Configuring Kerberos via DNS also creates a minor security issue—an attacker can seriously disrupt
your infrastructure through your DNS (by shooting down the name server, spoofing
DNS records, etc.). However, this amounts to a denial of service at worst. A simiNetwork Authentication with Kerberos
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lar scenario applies to the static configuration case unless you enter IP addresses in
krb5.conf instead of hostnames.
Static Configuration
One way to configure Kerberos is to edit /etc/krb5.conf. The file installed
by default contains various sample entries. Erase all of these entries before starting.
krb5.conf is made up of several sections (stanzas), each introduced by the section
name in brackets like [this].
To configure your Kerberos clients, add the following stanza to krb5.conf (where
kdc.example.com is the hostname of the KDC):
[libdefaults]
default_realm = EXAMPLE.COM
[realms]
EXAMPLE.COM = {
kdc = kdc.example.com
admin_server = kdc.example.com
}
The default_realm line sets the default realm for Kerberos applications. If you
have several realms, just add additional statements to the [realms] section.
Also add a statement to this file that tells applications how to map hostnames to
a realm. For example, when connecting to a remote host, the Kerberos library
needs to know in which realm this host is located. This must be configured in the
[domain_realms] section:
[domain_realm]
.example.com = EXAMPLE.COM
www.foobar.com = EXAMPLE.COM
This tells the library that all hosts in the example.com DNS domains are
in the EXAMPLE.COM Kerberos realm. In addition, one external host named
www.foobar.com should also be considered a member of the EXAMPLE.COM
realm.
DNS-Based Configuration
DNS-based Kerberos configuration makes heavy use of SRV records. See (RFC2052)
A DNS RR for specifying the location of services at http://www.ietf.org.
The name of an SRV record, as far as Kerberos is concerned, is always in the format
_service._proto.realm, where realm is the Kerberos realm. Domain names in
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DNS are case insensitive, so case-sensitive Kerberos realms would break when using
this configuration method. _service is a service name (different names are used
when trying to contact the KDC or the password service, for example). _proto can
be either _udp or _tcp, but not all services support both protocols.
The data portion of SRV resource records consists of a priority value, a weight, a port
number, and a hostname. The priority defines the order in which hosts should be tried
(lower values indicate a higher priority). The weight value is there to support some
sort of load balancing among servers of equal priority. You probably do not need any
of this, so it is okay to set these to zero.
MIT Kerberos currently looks up the following names when looking for services:
_kerberos
This defines the location of the KDC daemon (the authentication and ticket granting server). Typical records look like this:
_kerberos._udp.EXAMPLE.COM.
_kerberos._tcp.EXAMPLE.COM.
IN
IN
SRV
SRV
0 0 88 kdc.example.com.
0 0 88 kdc.example.com.
_kerberos-adm
This describes the location of the remote administration service. Typical records
look like this:
_kerberos-adm._tcp.EXAMPLE.COM. IN
SRV
0 0 749 kdc.example.com.
Because kadmind does not support UDP, there should be no _udp record.
As with the static configuration file, there is a mechanism to inform clients
that a specific host is in the EXAMPLE.COM realm, even if it is not part of the
example.com DNS domain. This can be done by attaching a TXT record to
_kerberos.hostname, as shown here:
_kerberos.www.foobar.com.
IN TXT "EXAMPLE.COM"
Adjusting the Clock Skew
The clock skew is the tolerance for accepting tickets with time stamps that do not exactly match the host's system clock. Usually, the clock skew is set to 300 seconds (five
minutes). This means a ticket can have a time stamp somewhere between five minutes
behind and five minutes ahead of the server's clock.
When using NTP to synchronize all hosts, you can reduce this value to about one
minute. The clock skew value can be set in /etc/krb5.conf like this:
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[libdefaults]
clockskew = 60
6.4.7 Configuring Remote Kerberos
Administration
To be able to add and remove principals from the Kerberos database without accessing the KDC's console directly, tell the Kerberos administration server which
principals are allowed to do what by editing /var/lib/kerberos/krb5kdc/
kadm5.acl. The ACL (access control list) file allows you to specify privileges with
a precise degree of control. For details, refer to the manual page with man 8 kadmind.
For now, just grant yourself the privilege to administer the database by putting the
following line into the file:
geeko/admin
*
Replace the username geeko with your own. Restart kadmind for the change to
take effect.
You should now be able to perform Kerberos administration tasks remotely using the
kadmin tool. First, obtain a ticket for your admin role and use that ticket when connecting to the kadmin server:
kadmin -p geeko/admin
Authenticating as principal geeko/[email protected] with password.
Password for geeko/[email protected]:
kadmin: getprivs
current privileges: GET ADD MODIFY DELETE
kadmin:
Using the getprivs command, verify which privileges you have. The list shown
above is the full set of privileges.
As an example, modify the principal geeko:
kadmin -p geeko/admin
Authenticating as principal geeko/[email protected] with password.
Password for geeko/[email protected]:
kadmin: getprinc geeko
Principal: [email protected]
Expiration date: [never]
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Last password change: Wed Jan 12 17:28:46 CET 2005
Password expiration date: [none]
Maximum ticket life: 0 days 10:00:00
Maximum renewable life: 7 days 00:00:00
Last modified: Wed Jan 12 17:47:17 CET 2005 (admin/[email protected])
Last successful authentication: [never]
Last failed authentication: [never]
Failed password attempts: 0
Number of keys: 2
Key: vno 1, Triple DES cbc mode with HMAC/sha1, no salt
Key: vno 1, DES cbc mode with CRC-32, no salt
Attributes:
Policy: [none]
kadmin: modify_principal -maxlife "8 hours" geeko
Principal "[email protected]" modified.
kadmin: getprinc joe
Principal: [email protected]
Expiration date: [never]
Last password change: Wed Jan 12 17:28:46 CET 2005
Password expiration date: [none]
Maximum ticket life: 0 days 08:00:00
Maximum renewable life: 7 days 00:00:00
Last modified: Wed Jan 12 17:59:49 CET 2005 (geeko/[email protected])
Last successful authentication: [never]
Last failed authentication: [never]
Failed password attempts: 0
Number of keys: 2
Key: vno 1, Triple DES cbc mode with HMAC/sha1, no salt
Key: vno 1, DES cbc mode with CRC-32, no salt
Attributes:
Policy: [none]
kadmin:
This changes the maximum ticket life time to eight hours. For more information
about the kadmin command and the options available, see the krb5-doc package
or refer to the man8 kadmin manual page.
6.4.8 Creating Kerberos Service
Principals
So far, only user credentials have been discussed. However, Kerberos-compatible services usually need to authenticate themselves to the client user, too. Therefore, special
service principals must be present in the Kerberos database for each service offered in
the realm. For example, if ldap.example.com offers an LDAP service, you need a service principal, ldap/[email protected], to authenticate this
service to all clients.
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The naming convention for service principals is service/hostname@REALM,
where hostname is the host's fully qualified hostname.
Valid service descriptors are:
Service Descriptor
Service
host
Telnet, RSH, SSH
nfs
NFSv4 (with Kerberos support)
HTTP
HTTP (with Kerberos authentication)
imap
IMAP
pop
POP3
ldap
LDAP
Service principals are similar to user principals, but have significant differences. The
main difference between a user principal and a service principal is that the key of the
former is protected by a password—when a user obtains a ticket-granting ticket from
the KDC, he needs to type his password so Kerberos can decrypt the ticket. It would
be quite inconvenient for the system administrator if he had to obtain new tickets for
the SSH daemon every eight hours or so.
Instead, the key required to decrypt the initial ticket for the service principal is
extracted by the administrator from the KDC only once and stored in a local file
called the keytab. Services such as the SSH daemon read this key and use it to obtain
new tickets automatically, when needed. The default keytab file resides in /etc/
krb5.keytab.
To create a host service principal for jupiter.example.com enter the following
commands during your kadmin session:
kadmin -p geeko/admin
Authenticating as principal geeko/[email protected] with password.
Password for geeko/[email protected]:
kadmin: addprinc -randkey host/jupiter.example.com
WARNING: no policy specified for host/[email protected];
defaulting to no policy
Principal "host/[email protected]" created.
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Instead of setting a password for the new principal, the -randkey flag tells kadmin
to generate a random key. This is used here because no user interaction is wanted for
this principal. It is a server account for the machine.
Finally, extract the key and store it in the local keytab file /etc/krb5.keytab.
This file is owned by the superuser, so you must be root to execute the next command in the kadmin shell:
kadmin: ktadd host/jupiter.example.com
Entry for principal host/jupiter.example.com with kvno 3, encryption type
Triple
DES cbc mode with HMAC/sha1 added to keytab WRFILE:/etc/krb5.keytab.
Entry for principal host/jupiter.example.com with kvno 3, encryption type
DES
cbc mode with CRC-32 added to keytab WRFILE:/etc/krb5.keytab.
kadmin:
When completed, make sure that you destroy the admin ticket obtained with kinit
above with kdestroy.
6.4.9 Enabling PAM Support for Kerberos
SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server comes with a PAM module named pam_krb5,
which supports Kerberos login and password update. This module can be used by applications such as console login, su, and graphical login applications like KDM (where
the user presents a password and would like the authenticating application to obtain
an initial Kerberos ticket on his behalf). To configure PAM support for Kerberos, use
the following command:
pam-config --add --krb5
The above command adds the pam_krb5 module to the existing PAM configuration
files and makes sure it is called in the right order. To make precise adjustments to the
way in which pam_krb5 is used, edit the file /etc/krb5.conf and add default
applications to pam. For details, refer to the manual page with man 5 pam_krb5.
The pam_krb5 module was specifically not designed for network services that accept Kerberos tickets as part of user authentication. This is an entirely different matter, and is discussed below.
6.4.10 Configuring SSH for Kerberos
Authentication
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OpenSSH supports Kerberos authentication in both protocol version 1 and 2. In version 1, there are special protocol messages to transmit Kerberos tickets. Version 2
does not use Kerberos directly anymore, but relies on GSSAPI, the General Security
Services API. This is a programming interface that is not specific to Kerberos—it was
designed to hide the peculiarities of the underlying authentication system, be it Kerberos, a public-key authentication system like SPKM, or others. However, the included GSSAPI library only supports Kerberos.
To use sshd with Kerberos authentication, edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config and set
the following options:
# These are for protocol version 1
#
# KerberosAuthentication yes
# KerberosTicketCleanup yes
# These are for version 2 - better to use this
GSSAPIAuthentication yes
GSSAPICleanupCredentials yes
Then restart your SSH daemon using rcsshd restart.
To use Kerberos authentication with protocol version 2, enable it on the client side as
well. Do this either in the systemwide configuration file /etc/ssh/ssh_config
or on a per-user level by editing ~/.ssh/config. In both cases, add the option
GSSAPIAuthentication yes.
You should now be able to connect using Kerberos authentication. Use klist to verify that you have a valid ticket, then connect to the SSH server. To force SSH protocol
version 1, specify the -1 option on the command line.
TIP: Additional Information
The file /usr/share/doc/packages/openssh/README.kerberos
discusses the interaction of OpenSSH and Kerberos in more detail.
TIP: Additional Directives for Protocol Version 2
Since SLES 11 SP3, the GSSAPIKeyExchange is supported. This directive
specifies how host keys are exchanged. For further information see manual
page sshd_config(5).
6.4.11 Using LDAP and Kerberos
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When using Kerberos, one way to distribute the user information (such as user ID,
groups, and home directory) in your local network is to use LDAP. This requires a
strong authentication mechanism that prevents packet spoofing and other attacks. One
solution is to use Kerberos for LDAP communication, too.
OpenLDAP implements most authentication flavors through SASL, the simple authentication session layer. SASL is basically a network protocol designed for authentication. The SASL implementation is cyrus-sasl, which supports a number of different
authentication flavors. Kerberos authentication is performed through GSSAPI (General Security Services API). By default, the SASL plug-in for GSSAPI is not installed.
Install the cyrus-sasl-gssapi with YaST.
To enable Kerberos to bind to the OpenLDAP server, create a principal ldap/
ldap.example.com and add that to the keytab.
By default, the LDAP server slapd runs as user and group ldap, while the keytab
file is readable by root only. Therefore, either change the LDAP configuration so
the server runs as root or make the keytab file readable by the group ldap. The
latter is done automatically by the OpenLDAP start script (/etc/init.d/ldap)
if the keytab file has been specified in the OPENLDAP_KRB5_KEYTAB variable in
/etc/sysconfig/openldap and the OPENLDAP_CHOWN_DIRS variable is
set to yes, which is the default setting. If OPENLDAP_KRB5_KEYTAB is left empty, the default keytab under /etc/krb5.keytab is used and you must adjust the
privileges yourself as described below.
To run slapd as root, edit /etc/sysconfig/openldap. Disable the
OPENLDAP_USER and OPENLDAP_GROUP variables by putting a comment character in front of them.
To make the keytab file readable by group LDAP, execute
chgrp ldap /etc/krb5.keytab
chmod 640 /etc/krb5.keytab
A third (and maybe the best) solution is to tell OpenLDAP to use a special keytab file.
To do this, start kadmin, and enter the following command after you have added the
principal ldap/ldap.example.com:
ktadd -k /etc/openldap/ldap.keytab ldap/[email protected]
Then in the shell run:
chown ldap.ldap /etc/openldap/ldap.keytab
chmod 600 /etc/openldap/ldap.keytab
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To tell OpenLDAP to use a different keytab file, change the following variable in /
etc/sysconfig/openldap:
OPENLDAP_KRB5_KEYTAB="/etc/openldap/ldap.keytab"
Finally, restart the LDAP server using rcldap restart.
6.4.11.1 Using Kerberos Authentication with LDAP
You are now able to automatically use tools such as ldapsearch with Kerberos authentication.
ldapsearch -b ou=people,dc=example,dc=com '(uid=geeko)'
SASL/GSSAPI authentication started
SASL SSF: 56
SASL installing layers
[...]
# geeko, people, example.com
dn: uid=geeko,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com
uid: geeko
cn: Olaf Kirch
[...]
As you can see, ldapsearch prints a message that it started GSSAPI authentication.
The next message is very cryptic, but it shows that the security strength factor (SSF
for short) is 56 (The value 56 is somewhat arbitrary. Most likely it was chosen because this is the number of bits in a DES encryption key). What this tells you is that
GSSAPI authentication was successful and that encryption is being used to protect integrity and provide confidentiality for the LDAP connection.
In Kerberos, authentication is always mutual. This means that not only have you authenticated yourself to the LDAP server, but also the LDAP server has authenticated
itself to you. In particular, this means communication is with the desired LDAP server, rather than some bogus service set up by an attacker.
6.4.11.2 Kerberos Authentication and LDAP
Access Control
There is one minor piece of the puzzle missing—how the LDAP server can find out
that the Kerberos user [email protected] corresponds to the LDAP distinguished
name uid=joe,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com. This sort of mapping
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must be configured manually using the saslExpr directive. In this example, the
"authz-regexp" change in LDIF would look as follows:
dn: cn=config
add: olcAuthzRegexp
olcAuthzRegexp: uid=(.*),cn=GSSAPI,cn=auth uid=
$1,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com
All these changes can be applied via ldapmodify on the command line.
To understand how this works, you need to know that when SASL authenticates a
user, OpenLDAP forms a distinguished name from the name given to it by SASL
(such as joe) and the name of the SASL flavor (GSSAPI). The result would be
uid=joe,cn=GSSAPI,cn=auth.
If a authz-regexp has been configured, it checks the DN formed from the SASL
information using the first argument as a regular expression. If this regular expression matches, the name is replaced with the second argument of the authz-regexp
statement. The placeholder $1 is replaced with the substring matched by the (.*)
expression.
More complicated match expressions are possible. If you have a more complicated directory structure or a schema in which the username is not part of the DN, you can
even use search expressions to map the SASL DN to the user DN.
For more information, see the slapd-config man page.
6.5 For More Information
The official site of the MIT Kerberos is http://web.mit.edu/kerberos.
There, find links to any other relevant resource concerning Kerberos, including Kerberos installation, user, and administration guides.
The paper at ftp://athena-dist.mit.edu/pub/kerberos/doc/
usenix.PS gives quite an extensive insight to the basic principles of Kerberos,
without being too difficult to read. It also provides a lot of opportunities for further
investigation and reading about Kerberos.
The official Kerberos FAQ is available at http://www.nrl.navy.mil/CCS/
people/kenh/kerberos-faq.html. The book Kerberos—A Network Authentication System by Brian Tung (ISBN 0-201-37924-4) offers extensive information.
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7
Using the Fingerprint
Reader
If your system includes a fingerprint reader, you can use biometric authentication
in addition to standard authentication via login and password. After registering their
fingerprint, users can log in to the system either by swiping a finger on the fingerprint reader or by typing in a password. SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server supports
most available fingerprint readers. For a list of supported devices, please refer to
http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/fprint/libfprint
If the hardware check detects the fingerprint reader integrated with your laptop (or
connected to your system), the packages libfprint, pam_fp, and yast2-fingerprint-reader are automatically installed.
Currently, only one fingerprint per user can be registered. The user's fingerprint data
is stored to /home/login/.fprint/.
7.1 Supported Applications and
Actions
The PAM module pam_fp supports fingerprint authentication for the following applications and actions (although you may not be prompted to swipe your finger in all
cases):
• Logging in to GDM/KDM or a login shell
• Unlocking your screen on the GNOME/KDE desktop
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113
• Starting YaST and the YaST modules
• Starting an application with root permission: sudo or gnomesu
• Changing to a different user identity with su or su - username
NOTE: Fingerprint Reader Devices and Encrypted Home Directories
If you want to use a fingerprint reader device, you must not use encrypted
home directories (see Chapter 12, Managing Users with YaST (↑Deployment Guide) for more information). Otherwise logging in will fail, because decrypting during login is not possible in combination with an active fingerprint
reader device.
7.2 Managing Fingerprints with
YaST
Procedure 7.1: Enabling Fingerprint Authentication
You can only use biometric authentication if PAM is configured accordingly. Usually, this is done automatically during installation of the packages when the hardware
check detects a supported fingerprint reader. If not, manually enable the fingerprint
support in YaST as follows:
1 Start YaST and select Hardware > Fingerprint Reader.
2 In the configuration dialog, activate Use Fingerprint Reader and click Finish to save
the changes and close the dialog.
Now you can register a fingerprint for various users.
Procedure 7.2: Registering a Fingerprint
1 In YaST, click Security and Users > User Management to open the User and Group
Administration dialog. A list of users or groups in the system is displayed.
2 Select the user for whom you want to register a fingerprint and click Edit.
3 On the Plug-Ins tab, select the fingerprint entry and click Launch to open the Fingerprint Configuration dialog.
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4 YaST prompts the user to swipe his finger until three readable fingerprints have
been gathered.
5 After the fingerprint has been acquired successfully, click Accept to close the Fingerprint Configuration dialog and the dialog for the user.
6 If you also want to use fingerprint authentication for starting YaST or the YaST
modules, you need to register a fingerprint for root, too.
To do so, set the filter in the User and Group Administration dialog to System Users,
select the root entry and register a fingerprint for root as described above.
7 After you have registered fingerprints for the desired users, click Finish to close
the administration dialog and to save the changes.
As soon as the user's fingerprint has been successfully registered, the user can choose
to authenticate with either fingerprint or password for the actions and applications
listed in Section 7.1, “Supported Applications and Actions” (page 113).
Currently, YaST does not offer verification or removal of fingerprints, but you remove fingerprints by deleting the directory /home/login/.fprint.
For more technical details, refer to http://www.freedesktop.org/wi
ki/Software/fprint.
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Part II. Local Security
Configuring Security
Settings with YaST
8
The YaST module Security Center and Hardening offers a central clearinghouse to
configure security-related settings for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. Use it to configure security aspects such as settings for the login procedure and for password creation, for boot permissions, user creation or for default file permissions. Launch it
from the YaST Control Center by Security and Users > Security Center and Hardening.
The Security Center dialog always starts with the Security Overview, and other configuration dialogs are available from the right pane.
8.1 Security Overview
The Security Overview displays a comprehensive list of the most important security
settings for your system. The security status of each entry in the list is clearly visible.
A green check mark indicates a secure setting while a red cross indicates an entry as
being insecure. Clicking on Help presents an overview of the setting and information
on how to make it secure. To change a setting, click on the corresponding link in the
Status column. Depending on the setting, the following entries are available:
Enable/Disable
Clicking on this entry will toggle the status of the setting to either enabled or disabled.
Configure
Clicking on this entry will launch another YaST module for configuration. You
will return to the Security Overview when leaving the module.
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119
Unknown
A setting's status is set to unknown when the associated service is not installed.
Such a setting does not represent a potential security risk.
Figure 8.1: YaST Security Center and Hardening - Security Overview
8.2 Predefined Security
Configurations
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server comes with three Predefined Security Configurations.
These configurations affect all the settings available in the Security Center module.
Each configuration can be modified to your needs using the dialogs available from the
right pane. Choose between the following sets:
Home Workstation
This setting is designed for a computer that has no network connection at all (including a connection to the Internet). It provides the least secure configuration of
the predefined settings.
Networked Workstation
A configuration for a workstation with any kind of network connection (including
a connection to the Internet).
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Network Server
Security settings designed for a machine providing network services such as a
Web server, file server, name server, etc. This set provides the most secure configuration of the predefined settings.
Custom Settings
A pre-selected Custom Settings (when opening the Predefined Security Configurations dialog) indicates that one of the predefined sets has been modified. Actively
choosing this option does not change the current configuration - you will have to
change it using the Security Overview.
8.3 Password Settings
Passwords that are easy to guess are a major security issue. The Password Settings dialog provides the means to ensure that only secure passwords can be used.
Check New Passwords
By activating this option, a warning will be issued if new passwords appear in a
dictionary, or if they are proper names (proper nouns).
Test for Complicated Passwords
When this option is checked, any new password is checked that it consists of a
mixture of characters, digits and special characters. If it fails to pass this test, a
warning is issued upon the entering of the new password.
Number of Passwords to Remember
When password expiration is activated (via Password Age), this setting stores the
given number of a user's previous passwords, preventing their reuse.
Password Encryption Method
Choose a password encryption algorithm. Normally there is no need to change the
default (Blowfish).
Minimum Acceptable Password Length
If the user chooses a password with a length shorter than specified here, a warning will be issued.
Password Age
Activate password expiration by specifying a minimum and a maximum time limit (in days). By setting the minimum age to a value greater than 0 days, you can
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121
prevent users from immediately changing their passwords again (and in doing so
circumventing the password expiration). Use the values 0 and 99999 to deactivate password expiration.
Days Before Password Expires Warning
When a password expires, the user receives a warning in advance. Specify the
number of days prior to the expiration date that the warning should be issued.
8.4 Boot Settings
Configure which users will be able to shutdown the machine via the graphical login
manager in this dialog. You can also specify how Ctrl + Alt + Del will be interpreted.
8.5 Login Settings
This dialog lets you configure security-related login settings:
Delay after Incorrect Login Attempt
In order to make it difficult to guess a user's password by repeatedly logging in, it
is recommended to delay the display of the login prompt that follows an incorrect
login. Specify the value in seconds. Make sure that users who have mistyped their
passwords do not need to wait too long.
Record Successful Login Attempts
With this option turned on, the last successful login attempt is recorded in /var/
log/lastlog and displayed when logging in. This data is also used by the
command finger.
NOTE
Note that logging to /var/log/wtmp is not affected by this option. This
file collects login dates, login times and reboot dates. The content of /
var/log/wtmp can be displayed by using the command last.
Allow Remote Graphical Login
When checked, the graphical login manager (e.g. gdm or kdm) can be accessed
from the network. This is a potential security risk.
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8.6 User Addition
Set minimum and maximum values for user and group IDs. These default settings
would rarely need to be changed.
8.7 Miscellaneous Settings
Other security settings that don't fit the above-mentioned categories are listed here:
File Permissions
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server comes with three predefined sets of file permissions for system files. These permission sets define whether a regular user may
read log files or start certain programs. Easy file permissions are suitable for
stand-alone machines. These settings allow regular users to, for example, read
most system files. See the file /etc/permissions.easy for the complete
configuration. The Secure file permissions are designed for multiuser machines
with network access. A thorough explanation of these settings can be found in /
etc/permissions.secure. The Paranoid settings are the most restrictive
ones and should be used with care. See /etc/permissions.paranoid for
more information.
User Launching updatedb
The program updatedb scans the system and creates a database of all file locations which can be queried with the command locate. When updatedb is run
as user nobody, only world-readable files will be added to the database. When run
as user root, almost all files (except the ones root is not allowed to read) will be
added.
Current Directory in root's Path / Current Directory in Path of Regular Users
Whenever a program is called without specifying the full path to the executable,
the system looks in the user's search path (defined by the variable $PATH) for the
executable. By default the current directory is not added to the search path. This
setting ensures that, for example, /bin/ls and not the trojan horse /current
directory/ls is executed when entering ls. In order to start a program in
the current directory the command must be prefixed with ./. When activating
these options, the current directory (.) is appended to the search path. It is recommended you not change the default.
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Enable Magic SysRq Keys
The magic SysRq key is a keycombo that enables you to have some control over
the system even when it has crashed. The complete documentation can be found
at /usr/src/linux/Documentation/sysrq.txt (requires installation
of the kernel-source package).
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9
PolicyKit
PolicyKit is an application framework that acts as a negotiator between the unprivileged user session and the privileged system context. Whenever a process from the
user session tries to carry out an action in the system context, PolicyKit is queried.
Based on its configuration—specified in a so-called “policy”—the answer could be
yes, no, or needs authentication. Unlike classical privilege authorization programs such as sudo, PolicyKit does not grant root permissions to an entire
process, following the “least privilege” concept.
9.1 Conceptual Overview
Each existing policy has a speaking name (its identifier), which is used with the command line tools and the graphical user interface.
9.1.1 Available Policies and Supported
Applications
At the moment, not all applications requiring privileges make use of PolicyKit. Find
the most important policies available on SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server below, sorted into the categories where they are used.
PulseAudio
Set scheduling priorities for the PulseAudio daemon
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CUPS
Add, remove, edit, enable or disable printers
GNOME
Modify system and mandatory values with GConf
Change the system time
libvirt
Manage and monitor local virtualized systems
PolicyKit
Read and change privileges for other users
Modify defaults
PackageKit
Update and remove packages
Change and refresh repositories
Install local files
Rollback
Import repository keys
Accepting EULAs
Setting the network proxy
System
Wake on LAN
Mount or unmount fixed, hotpluggable and encrypted devices
Eject and decrypt removable media
Enable or disable WLAN
Enable or disable Bluetooth
Device access
Stop, suspend, hibernate and restart the system
Undock a docking station
Change power-management settings
YaST
Register product
Change the system time and language
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9.1.2 Authorization Types
Every time a PolicyKit-enabled process carries out a privileged operation, PolicyKit
is asked whether this process is entitled to do so. PolicyKit answers according to the
policy defined for this process. The answers can be yes, no, or authentication
needed. By default, a policy contains implicit privileges, which automatically
apply to all users. It is also possible to specify explicit privileges which apply to a
specific user.
9.1.2.1 Implicit Privileges
Implicit privileges can be defined for any, active, and inactive sessions. An active
session is the one in which you are currently working. It becomes inactive when you
switch to another console for example. When setting implicit privileges to “no”, no
user is authorized, whereas “yes” authorizes all users. However, in most cases it is useful to demand authentication.
A user can either authorize by authenticating as root or by authenticating as self.
Both authentication methods exist in four variants:
Authentication
The user always has to authenticate.
One Shot Authentication
The authentication is bound to the instance of the program currently running.
Once the program is restarted, the user is required to authenticate again.
Keep Session Authentication
The authentication dialog box offers a check button Remember authorization for
this session. If checked, the authentication is valid until the user logs out.
Keep Indefinitely Authentication
The authentication dialog box offers a check button Remember authorization. If
checked, the user has to authenticate only once.
9.1.2.2 Explicit Privileges
Explicit privileges can be granted to specific users. They can either be granted without
limitations, or, when using constraints, limited to an active session and/or a local console.
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It is not only possible to grant privileges to a user, a user can also be blocked. Blocked
users will not be able to carry out an action requiring authorization, even though the
default implicit policy allows authorization by authentication.
9.1.3 Default Privileges
Each application supporting PolicyKit comes with a default set of implicit policies
defined by the application's developers. Those policies are the so-called “upstream
defaults”. The privileges defined by the upstream defaults are not necessarily the
ones that are activated by default on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server comes with a predefined set of privileges that override the upstream defaults. The default policies for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server are defined
in /etc/polkit-default-privs.standard and /etc/polkit-de
fault-privs.restrictive. The .standard file defines privileges suitable
for most desktop systems. The .restrictive set of privileges is designed for machines administrated centrally. It is active by default.
To switch between the two sets of default privileges, adjust the value
of POLKIT_DEFAULT_PRIVS to either restrictive or standard in /etc/sysconfig/security. Then run the command
set_polkit_default_privs as root.
Do not modify /etc/polkit-default-privs.standard nor /etc/
polkit-default-privs.restrictive. In order to define your own
custom set of privileges, use /etc/polkit-default-privs.local.
For details, refer to Section 9.2.3.1, “Modifying Configuration Files for Implicit
Privileges” (page 132).
9.2 Modifying and Setting
Privileges
To modify implicit privileges or to set explicit ones, you can either use the graphical Authorizations tool available with GNOME or KDE, use the command line tools
shipped with PolicyKit, or modify the configuration files. While the GUI and the
command line tools are a good solution for making temporary changes, editing the
configuration files should be the preferred way to make permanent changes.
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9.2.1 Using the Graphical Authorizations
Tool
TIP: Using the Authorizations Tool
Authorizations is a graphical tool and therefore not installed when the respective GNOME or KDE desktop environment is not installed. In this case you
need to install the package PolicyKit-gnome (GNOME) or libpolkit-qt0 (KDE) in order to use the tool.
Start the Authorizations tool from a desktop environment by pressing Alt + F2 and entering polkit-gnome-authorization or polkit-kde-authorization,
respectively.
Figure 9.1: The Authorizations Main Window (GNOME)
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The Authorizations window is divided into two panes: The left-hand pane shows all
policies available in a tree view, while the right-hand pane displays details for the policy selected and offers means to change it.
The KDE and GNOME Authorizations dialogs are very similar. The most noticeable
difference is the location where details about the chosen policy are displayed: the
GNOME dialog displays them in a dedicated Actions section on the right-hand pane. It
holds the following information:
• Identifier: Unique string used by PolicyKit to identify the policy.
• Description: this information explaining the purpose of the policy.
• Vendor: A link to the organization that has issued this policy.
The KDE dialog shows the identifier string directly in the tree view on the left-hand
pane, together with a short description, which is also displayed at the top of the righthand pane, together with the vendor link.
Alter any settings from the right-hand pane, as described below:
Implicit Authorizations
In the GNOME dialog, click Edit to choose an authorization type, as explained in
Section 9.1.2.1, “Implicit Privileges” (page 127). In KDE, you can directly select the authorization types from the drop-down list.
Click Revert To Defaults to restore the system defaults.
NOTE: Restrictions of the Revert to Defaults function on SUSE
Linux Enterprise Server
With Revert to Defaults, the Authorization tool always operates on the
upstream defaults. To instead restore the defaults shipped with SUSE
Linux Enterprise Server, refer to Section 9.2.4, “Restoring the Default
Privileges” (page 134).
Explicit Authorizations
In this section you can Grant privileges to existing users or Block users. In both
cases, choose a user and a Constraint. Users with a UID of less than 1000 are only
shown when Show System Users is checked. To delete an authorization, choose it
from the list and click Revoke.
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9.2.2 Using the Command Line Tools
PolicyKit comes with two command line tools for changing implicit privileges and
for assigning explicit privileges. Each existing policy has got a speaking, unique name
with which it can be identified and which is used with the command line tools. List all
available policies with the command polkit-action.
Listing and Modifying Implicit Privileges
polkit-action
When invoked with no parameters, the command polkit-action shows a list
of all policies. By adding the --show-overrides option, you can list all policies that differ from the default values. To reset the privileges for a given action
to the (upstream) defaults, use the option --reset-defaults ACTION. See
man 1 polkit-action for more information.
NOTE: Restrictions of polkit-action on SUSE Linux Enterprise
Server
polkit-action always operates on the upstream defaults. Therefore
it cannot be used to list or restore the defaults shipped with SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server. To do so, refer to Section 9.2.4, “Restoring the Default
Privileges” (page 134).
Listing, Granting, Blocking, and Revoking Explicit Privileges
polkit-auth
To print a list of explicit privileges for a specific user, use the following command:
polkit-auth --explicit-detail --user USER
Replace USER with a valid username. If the --user option is left out, the command shows the privileges for the user that executes the command. See man 1
polkit-auth for more information.
9.2.3 Modifying Configuration Files
Adjusting privileges by modifying configuration files is useful when you want to deploy the same set of policies to different machines, for example to the computers of a
specific team. It is possible to change implicit as well as explicit privileges by modifying configuration files.
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9.2.3.1 Modifying Configuration Files for Implicit
Privileges
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server ships with two sets of default authorizations, located in /etc/polkit-default-privs.standard and /etc/polkit-de
fault-privs.restrictive. For more information, refer to Section 9.1.3,
“Default Privileges” (page 128).
In order to define your custom set of privileges, use /etc/polkit-de
fault-privs.local. Privileges defined here will always take precedence over
the ones defined in the other configuration files. To define a privilege, add a line for
each policy with the following format:
<privilege_identifier> <any session>:<inactive session>:<active session>
For example:
org.freedesktop.policykit.modify-defaults auth_admin_keep_always
For a list of all privilege identifiers, run the command polkit-action. The following values are valid for the session parameters:
yes
grant privilege
no
block
auth_self
user needs to authenticate with own password every time the privilege is requested
auth_self_keep_session
user needs to authenticate with own password once per session, privilege is granted for the whole session
auth_self_keep_always
user needs to authenticate with own password once, privilege is granted for the
current and for future sessions
auth_admin
user needs to authenticate with root password every time the privilege is requested
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auth_admin_keep_session
user needs to authenticate with root password once per session, privilege is
granted for the whole session
auth_admin_keep_always
user needs to authenticate with root password once, privilege is granted for the
current and for future sessions
After editing /etc/polkit-default-privs.local, execute
set_polkit_default_privs to activate your settings.
9.2.3.2 Modifying Configuration Files for Explicit
Privileges
Explicit privileges can be set in /etc/PolicyKit/PolicyKit.conf. This
configuration file is written in XML using the PolicyKit DTD. The file that is shipped
with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server already contains the necessary headers and the
root element <config>. Place your edits inside the <config> tags.
match
Specify an action or a user. match knows two attributes, user and action,
but only a single attribute is allowed. Use nested match statements to combine
attributes. POSIX Extended Regular Expressions are allowed as attribute values.
user=USER
Specify one or more login names. Separate multiple names by the “|” symbol.
action=policy
Specify a policy by it's unique identifier. To get a list of all available policy
identifiers use the command polkit-action.
return
Specify the answer PolicyKit will return. Takes a single attribute,
result=value with one of the values listed under Section 9.2.3.1, “Modifying Configuration Files for Implicit Privileges” (page 132).
define_admin_auth
Specify users or groups allowed to authorize with their own password where normally the root password would be required. Takes the attributes user=USER
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or group=GROUP, but only one may be used at a time. Multiple attribute values
must be separated by “|”, Extended POSIX Regular Expressions are not supported. Applies to all policies when used at the top level, or to specific policies when
used within <match> statements.
Example 9.1: An example /etc/PolicyKit/PolicyKit.conf file
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE pkconfig PUBLIC "-//freedesktop//DTD PolicyKit Configuration 1.0//
EN"
"http://hal.freedesktop.org/releases/PolicyKit/1.0/config.dtd">
<config version="0.1">
<match action="org.freedesktop.packagekit.system-update">
<match user="tux">
<return result="yes"/>
</match>
</match>
<match action="org.freedesktop.policykit.*">
<match user="tux|wilber">
<return result="no"/>
</match>
</match>
<define_admin_auth group="administrators"/>
</config>
The first three lines of the config file are the XML header. These lines are already present in the template file, leave them untouched.
The XML root element must always be present. The attribute version is
mandatory, currently the only valid value is 0.1. Already present in the template file.
A statement granting the user tux the privilege to update packages via PackageKit without having to authorize.
Withdraw privileges for all PolicyKit-related policies from the users tux and
wilber.
This statement allows all members of the group administrators to authenticate with their own password whenever authentication with the root password would be required. Since this statement is not nested within constraining
match statements, it applies to all policies.
9.2.4 Restoring the Default Privileges
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server comes with a predefined set of privileges that is activated by default and thus overrides the upstream defaults. For details, refer to Section 9.1.3, “Default Privileges” (page 128).
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Since the graphical PolicyKit tools and the command line tools always operate on
the upstream defaults, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server includes an additional command-line tool, set_polkit_default_privs. It resets privileges to the values defined in /etc/polkit-default-privs.*. However, the command
set_polkit_default_privs will only reset policies that are set to the upstream defaults.
Procedure 9.1: Restoring the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Defaults
1 Make sure /etc/polkit-default-privs.local does not contain any
overrides of the default policies.
IMPORTANT: Custom Policy Configuration
Policies defined in /etc/polkit-default-privs.local will be applied on top of the defaults during the next step.
2 To reset all policies to the upstream defaults first and then apply the SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server defaults:
rm -f /var/lib/PolicyKit-public/* && set_polkit_default_privs
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10
Access Control Lists in
Linux
POSIX ACLs (access control lists) can be used as an expansion of the traditional permission concept for file system objects. With ACLs, permissions can be defined more
flexibly than with the traditional permission concept.
The term POSIX ACL suggests that this is a true POSIX (portable operating system interface) standard. The respective draft standards POSIX 1003.1e and POSIX 1003.2c
have been withdrawn for several reasons. Nevertheless, ACLs (as found on many systems belonging to the UNIX family) are based on these drafts and the implementation of file system ACLs (as described in this chapter) follows these two standards, as
well.
10.1 Traditional File Permissions
Find detailed information about the traditional file permissions in the GNU Coreutils
Info page, Node File permissions (info coreutils "File permissions").
More advanced features are the setuid, setgid, and sticky bit.
10.1.1 The setuid Bit
In certain situations, the access permissions may be too restrictive. Therefore, Linux has additional settings that enable the temporary change of the current user and
group identity for a specific action. For example, the passwd program normally requires root permissions to access /etc/passwd. This file contains some important
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137
information, like the home directories of users and user and group IDs. Thus, a normal user would not be able to change passwd, because it would be too dangerous to
grant all users direct access to this file. A possible solution to this problem is the setuid mechanism. setuid (set user ID) is a special file attribute that instructs the system to
execute programs marked accordingly under a specific user ID. Consider the passwd command:
-rwsr-xr-x
1 root shadow 80036 2004-10-02 11:08 /usr/bin/passwd
You can see the s that denotes that the setuid bit is set for the user permission. By
means of the setuid bit, all users starting the passwd command execute it as root.
10.1.2 The setgid Bit
The setuid bit applies to users. However, there is also an equivalent property for
groups: the setgid bit. A program for which this bit was set runs under the group ID
under which it was saved, no matter which user starts it. Therefore, in a directory with
the setgid bit, all newly created files and subdirectories are assigned to the group to
which the directory belongs. Consider the following example directory:
drwxrws--- 2 tux archive 48 Nov 19 17:12
backup
You can see the s that denotes that the setgid bit is set for the group permission. The
owner of the directory and members of the group archive may access this directory. Users that are not members of this group are “mapped” to the respective group.
The effective group ID of all written files will be archive. For example, a backup
program that runs with the group ID archive is able to access this directory even
without root privileges.
10.1.3 The Sticky Bit
There is also the sticky bit. It makes a difference whether it belongs to an executable
program or a directory. If it belongs to a program, a file marked in this way is loaded
to RAM to avoid needing to get it from the hard disk each time it is used. This attribute is used rarely, because modern hard disks are fast enough. If this bit is assigned to a directory, it prevents users from deleting each other's files. Typical examples include the /tmp and /var/tmp directories:
drwxrwxrwt 2 root root 1160 2002-11-19 17:15 /tmp
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10.2 Advantages of ACLs
Traditionally, three permission sets are defined for each file object on a Linux system. These sets include the read (r), write (w), and execute (x) permissions for each
of three types of users—the file owner, the group, and other users. In addition to that,
it is possible to set the set user id, the set group id, and the sticky bit. This lean concept is fully adequate for most practical cases. However, for more complex scenarios or advanced applications, system administrators formerly had to use a number of
workarounds to circumvent the limitations of the traditional permission concept.
ACLs can be used as an extension of the traditional file permission concept. They allow the assignment of permissions to individual users or groups even if these do not
correspond to the original owner or the owning group. Access control lists are a feature of the Linux kernel and are currently supported by ReiserFS, Ext2, Ext3, JFS,
and XFS. Using ACLs, complex scenarios can be realized without implementing complex permission models on the application level.
The advantages of ACLs are evident if you want to replace a Windows server with a
Linux server. Some of the connected workstations may continue to run under Windows even after the migration. The Linux system offers file and print services to the
Windows clients with Samba. With Samba supporting access control lists, user permissions can be configured both on the Linux server and in Windows with a graphical user interface (only Windows NT and later). With winbindd, part of the samba
suite, it is even possible to assign permissions to users only existing in the Windows
domain without any account on the Linux server.
10.3 Definitions
User Class
The conventional POSIX permission concept uses three classes of users for assigning permissions in the file system: the owner, the owning group, and other
users. Three permission bits can be set for each user class, giving permission to
read (r), write (w), and execute (x).
ACL
The user and group access permissions for all kinds of file system objects (files
and directories) are determined by means of ACLs.
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Default ACL
Default ACLs can only be applied to directories. They determine the permissions
a file system object inherits from its parent directory when it is created.
ACL Entry
Each ACL consists of a set of ACL entries. An ACL entry contains a type, a
qualifier for the user or group to which the entry refers, and a set of permissions.
For some entry types, the qualifier for the group or users is undefined.
10.4 Handling ACLs
Table 10.1, “ACL Entry Types” (page 141) summarizes the six possible types of
ACL entries, each defining permissions for a user or a group of users. The owner entry defines the permissions of the user owning the file or directory. The owning group
entry defines the permissions of the file's owning group. The superuser can change the
owner or owning group with chown or chgrp, in which case the owner and owning
group entries refer to the new owner and owning group. Each named user entry defines the permissions of the user specified in the entry's qualifier field. Each named
group entry defines the permissions of the group specified in the entry's qualifier
field. Only the named user and named group entries have a qualifier field that is not
empty. The other entry defines the permissions of all other users.
The mask entry further limits the permissions granted by named user, named group,
and owning group entries by defining which of the permissions in those entries are effective and which are masked. If permissions exist in one of the mentioned entries as
well as in the mask, they are effective. Permissions contained only in the mask or only in the actual entry are not effective—meaning the permissions are not granted. All
permissions defined in the owner and owning group entries are always effective. The
example in Table 10.2, “Masking Access Permissions” (page 141) demonstrates
this mechanism.
There are two basic classes of ACLs: A minimum ACL contains only the entries for
the types owner, owning group, and other, which correspond to the conventional permission bits for files and directories. An extended ACL goes beyond this. It must contain a mask entry and may contain several entries of the named user and named group
types.
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Table 10.1: ACL Entry Types
Type
Text Form
owner
user::rwx
named user
user:name:rwx
owning group
group::rwx
named group
group:name:rwx
mask
mask::rwx
other
other::rwx
Table 10.2: Masking Access Permissions
Entry Type
Text Form
Permissions
named user
user:geeko:r-x
r-x
mask
mask::rw-
rw-
effective permissions:
r--
10.4.1 ACL Entries and File Mode
Permission Bits
Figure 10.1, “Minimum ACL: ACL Entries Compared to Permission
Bits” (page 142) and Figure 10.2, “Extended ACL: ACL Entries Compared to Permission Bits” (page 142) illustrate the two cases of a minimum ACL and an extended ACL. The figures are structured in three blocks—the left block shows the type
specifications of the ACL entries, the center block displays an example ACL, and the
right block shows the respective permission bits according to the conventional permission concept (for example, as displayed by ls -l). In both cases, the owner class permissions are mapped to the ACL entry owner. Other class permissions are mapped to
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the respective ACL entry. However, the mapping of the group class permissions is different in the two cases.
Figure 10.1: Minimum ACL: ACL Entries Compared to Permission Bits
In the case of a minimum ACL—without mask—the group class permissions are
mapped to the ACL entry owning group. This is shown in Figure 10.1, “Minimum
ACL: ACL Entries Compared to Permission Bits” (page 142). In the case of an extended ACL—with mask—the group class permissions are mapped to the mask entry.
This is shown in Figure 10.2, “Extended ACL: ACL Entries Compared to Permission
Bits” (page 142).
Figure 10.2: Extended ACL: ACL Entries Compared to Permission Bits
This mapping approach ensures the smooth interaction of applications, regardless of
whether they have ACL support. The access permissions that were assigned by means
of the permission bits represent the upper limit for all other “fine adjustments” made
with an ACL. Changes made to the permission bits are reflected by the ACL and vice
versa.
10.4.2 A Directory with an ACL
With getfacl and setfacl on the command line, you can access ACLs. The usage of these commands is demonstrated in the following example.
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Before creating the directory, use the umask command to define which access permissions should be masked each time a file object is created. The command umask
027 sets the default permissions by giving the owner the full range of permissions
(0), denying the group write access (2), and giving other users no permissions at all
(7). umask actually masks the corresponding permission bits or turns them off. For
details, consult the umask man page.
mkdir mydir creates the mydir directory with the default permissions as set by
umask. Use ls -dl mydir to check whether all permissions were assigned correctly. The output for this example is:
drwxr-x--- ... tux project3 ... mydir
With getfacl mydir, check the initial state of the ACL. This gives information
like:
# file: mydir
# owner: tux
# group: project3
user::rwx
group::r-x
other::---
The first three output lines display the name, owner, and owning group of the directory. The next three lines contain the three ACL entries owner, owning group, and other. In fact, in the case of this minimum ACL, the getfacl command does not produce any information you could not have obtained with ls.
Modify the ACL to assign read, write, and execute permissions to an additional user
geeko and an additional group mascots with:
setfacl -m user:geeko:rwx,group:mascots:rwx mydir
The option -m prompts setfacl to modify the existing ACL. The following argument indicates the ACL entries to modify (multiple entries are separated by commas).
The final part specifies the name of the directory to which these modifications should
be applied. Use the getfacl command to take a look at the resulting ACL.
# file: mydir
# owner: tux
# group: project3
user::rwx
user:geeko:rwx
group::r-x
group:mascots:rwx
mask::rwx
other::---
In addition to the entries initiated for the user geeko and the group mascots, a
mask entry has been generated. This mask entry is set automatically so that all perAccess Control Lists in Linux
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missions are effective. setfacl automatically adapts existing mask entries to the
settings modified, unless you deactivate this feature with -n. mask defines the maximum effective access permissions for all entries in the group class. This includes
named user, named group, and owning group. The group class permission bits displayed by ls -dl mydir now correspond to the mask entry.
drwxrwx---+ ... tux project3 ... mydir
The first column of the output contains an additional + to indicate that there is an extended ACL for this item.
According to the output of the ls command, the permissions for the mask entry include write access. Traditionally, such permission bits would mean that the owning
group (here project3) also has write access to the directory mydir. However, the
effective access permissions for the owning group correspond to the overlapping portion of the permissions defined for the owning group and for the mask—which is r-x
in our example (see Table 10.2, “Masking Access Permissions” (page 141)). As far
as the effective permissions of the owning group in this example are concerned, nothing has changed even after the addition of the ACL entries.
Edit the mask entry with setfacl or chmod. For example, use chmod g-w mydir. ls -dl mydir then shows:
drwxr-x---+ ... tux project3 ... mydir
getfacl mydir provides the following output:
# file: mydir
# owner: tux
# group: project3
user::rwx
user:geeko:rwx
group::r-x
group:mascots:rwx
mask::r-x
other::---
# effective: r-x
# effective: r-x
After executing the chmod command to remove the write permission from the group
class bits, the output of the ls command is sufficient to see that the mask bits must
have changed accordingly: write permission is again limited to the owner of mydir.
The output of the getfacl confirms this. This output includes a comment for all
those entries in which the effective permission bits do not correspond to the original
permissions, because they are filtered according to the mask entry. The original permissions can be restored at any time with chmod g+w mydir.
10.4.3 A Directory with a Default ACL
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Directories can have a default ACL, which is a special kind of ACL defining the access permissions that objects in the directory inherit when they are created. A default
ACL affects both subdirectories and files.
10.4.3.1 Effects of a Default ACL
There are two ways in which the permissions of a directory's default ACL are passed
to the files and subdirectories:
• A subdirectory inherits the default ACL of the parent directory both as its default
ACL and as an ACL.
• A file inherits the default ACL as its ACL.
All system calls that create file system objects use a mode parameter that defines the
access permissions for the newly created file system object. If the parent directory
does not have a default ACL, the permission bits as defined by the umask are subtracted from the permissions as passed by the mode parameter, with the result being
assigned to the new object. If a default ACL exists for the parent directory, the permission bits assigned to the new object correspond to the overlapping portion of the
permissions of the mode parameter and those that are defined in the default ACL.
The umask is disregarded in this case.
10.4.3.2 Application of Default ACLs
The following three examples show the main operations for directories and default
ACLs:
1. Add a default ACL to the existing directory mydir with:
setfacl -d -m group:mascots:r-x mydir
The option -d of the setfacl command prompts setfacl to perform the following modifications (option -m) in the default ACL.
Take a closer look at the result of this command:
getfacl mydir
# file: mydir
# owner: tux
# group: project3
user::rwx
user:geeko:rwx
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group::r-x
group:mascots:rwx
mask::rwx
other::--default:user::rwx
default:group::r-x
default:group:mascots:r-x
default:mask::r-x
default:other::---
getfacl returns both the ACL and the default ACL. The default ACL is formed
by all lines that start with default. Although you merely executed the setfacl
command with an entry for the mascots group for the default ACL, setfacl
automatically copied all other entries from the ACL to create a valid default ACL.
Default ACLs do not have an immediate effect on access permissions. They only
come into play when file system objects are created. These new objects inherit permissions only from the default ACL of their parent directory.
2. In the next example, use mkdir to create a subdirectory in mydir, which inherits
the default ACL.
mkdir mydir/mysubdir
getfacl mydir/mysubdir
# file: mydir/mysubdir
# owner: tux
# group: project3
user::rwx
group::r-x
group:mascots:r-x
mask::r-x
other::--default:user::rwx
default:group::r-x
default:group:mascots:r-x
default:mask::r-x
default:other::---
As expected, the newly-created subdirectory mysubdir has the permissions from
the default ACL of the parent directory. The ACL of mysubdir is an exact reflection of the default ACL of mydir. The default ACL that this directory will
hand down to its subordinate objects is also the same.
3. Use touch to create a file in the mydir directory, for example, touch mydir/myfile. ls -l mydir/myfile then shows:
-rw-r-----+ ... tux project3 ... mydir/myfile
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The output of getfacl mydir/myfile is:
# file: mydir/myfile
# owner: tux
# group: project3
user::rwgroup::r-x
# effective:r-group:mascots:r-x
# effective:r-mask::r-other::---
touch uses a mode with the value 0666 when creating new files, which means
that the files are created with read and write permissions for all user classes,
provided no other restrictions exist in umask or in the default ACL (see Section 10.4.3.1, “Effects of a Default ACL” (page 145)). In effect, this means that
all access permissions not contained in the mode value are removed from the respective ACL entries. Although no permissions were removed from the ACL entry of the group class, the mask entry was modified to mask permissions not set in
mode.
This approach ensures the smooth interaction of applications (such as compilers)
with ACLs. You can create files with restricted access permissions and subsequently mark them as executable. The mask mechanism guarantees that the right users
and groups can execute them as desired.
10.4.4 The ACL Check Algorithm
A check algorithm is applied before any process or application is granted access to an
ACL-protected file system object. As a basic rule, the ACL entries are examined in
the following sequence: owner, named user, owning group or named group, and other.
The access is handled in accordance with the entry that best suits the process. Permissions do not accumulate.
Things are more complicated if a process belongs to more than one group and would
potentially suit several group entries. An entry is randomly selected from the suitable
entries with the required permissions. It is irrelevant which of the entries triggers the
final result “access granted”. Likewise, if none of the suitable group entries contain
the required permissions, a randomly selected entry triggers the final result “access
denied”.
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10.5 ACL Support in Applications
ACLs can be used to implement very complex permission scenarios that meet the requirements of modern applications. The traditional permission concept and ACLs can
be combined in a smart manner. The basic file commands (cp, mv, ls, etc.) support
ACLs, as do Samba and Konqueror.
Unfortunately, many editors and file managers still lack ACL support. When copying
files with Emacs, for instance, the ACLs of these files are lost. When modifying files
with an editor, the ACLs of files are sometimes preserved and sometimes not, depending on the backup mode of the editor used. If the editor writes the changes to the
original file, the ACL is preserved. If the editor saves the updated contents to a new
file that is subsequently renamed to the old filename, the ACLs may be lost, unless
the editor supports ACLs. Except for the star archiver, there are currently no backup
applications that preserve ACLs.
10.6 For More Information
For more information about ACLs, see the man pages for getfacl(1), acl(5),
and setfacl(1).
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Encrypting Partitions and
Files
Most users have some confidential data on their computer that third parties should
not be able to access. The more you rely on mobile computing and on working in different environments and networks, the more carefully you should handle your data.
The encryption of files or entire partitions is recommended if others have network or
physical access to your system. Laptops or removable media, such as external hard
disks or USB sticks, are prone to being lost or stolen. Thus, it is recommended to encrypt the parts of your file system that hold confidential data.
11
There are several ways to protect your data by means of encryption:
Encrypting a Hard Disk Partition
You can create an encrypted partition with YaST during installation or in an already installed system. Refer to Section 11.1.1, “Creating an Encrypted Partition during Installation” (page 150) and Section 11.1.2, “Creating an Encrypted Partition on a Running System” (page 152) for details. This option can also be used for removable media, such as external hard disks, as described in Section 11.1.4, “Encrypting the Content of Removable Media” (page 153).
Creating an Encrypted File as Container
You can create an encrypted file on your hard disk or on a removable medium
with YaST at any time. The encrypted file can then be used to store other files or
folders. For more information, refer to Section 11.1.3, “Creating an Encrypted
File as a Container” (page 152).
Encrypting Home Directories
With SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, you can also create encrypted user home directories. When the user logs in to the system, the encrypted home directory is
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mounted and the contents are made available to the user. Refer to Section 11.2,
“Using Encrypted Home Directories” (page 153) for more information.
Encrypting Single ASCII Text Files
If you only have a small number of ASCII text files that hold sensitive or confidential data, you can encrypt them individually and protect them with a password
using Kgpg or the vi editor. Refer to Section 11.3, “Using vi to Encrypt Single
ASCII Text Files” (page 154) for more information.
WARNING: Encrypted Media Offers Limited Protection
The methods described in this chapter offer only a limited protection. You
cannot protect your running system from being compromised. After the encrypted medium is successfully mounted, everybody with appropriate permissions has access to it. However, encrypted media are useful in case of loss
or theft of your computer, or to prevent unauthorized individuals from reading
your confidential data.
11.1 Setting Up an Encrypted File
System with YaST
Use YaST to encrypt partitions or parts of your file system during installation or in an
already installed system. However, encrypting a partition in an already-installed system is more difficult, because you have to resize and change existing partitions. In
such cases, it may be more convenient to create an encrypted file of a defined size, in
which to store other files or parts of your file system. To encrypt an entire partition,
dedicate a partition for encryption in the partition layout. The standard partitioning
proposal as suggested by YaST, does not include an encrypted partition by default.
Add it manually in the partitioning dialog.
11.1.1 Creating an Encrypted Partition
during Installation
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WARNING: Password Input
Make sure to memorize the password for your encrypted partitions well. Without that password, you cannot access or restore the encrypted data.
The YaST expert dialog for partitioning offers the options needed for creating an encrypted partition. To create a new encrypted partition proceed as follows:
1 Run the YaST Expert Partitioner with System > Partitioner.
2 Select a hard disk, click Add, and select a primary or an extended partition.
3 Select the partition size or the region to use on the disk.
4 Select the file system, and mount point of this partition.
5 Activate the Encrypt device check box.
NOTE: Additional Software Required
After checking Encrypt device, a pop-up window asking for installing additional software may appear. Confirm to install all the required packages to
ensure that the encrypted partition works well.
6 If the encrypted file system needs to be mounted only when necessary, enable Do
not mount partition in the Fstab Options. otherwise enable Mount partition and enter
the mount point.
7 Click Next and enter a password which is used to encrypt this partition. This password is not displayed. To prevent typing errors, you need to enter the password
twice.
8 Complete the process by clicking Finish. The newly-encrypted partition is now created.
During the boot process, the operating system asks for the password before mounting any encrypted partition which is set to be auto-mounted in /etc/fstab. Such a
partition is then available to all users once it has been mounted.
To skip mounting the encrypted partition during start-up, click Enter when prompted for the password. Then decline the offer to enter the password again. In this case,
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the encrypted file system is not mounted and the operating system continues booting,
blocking access to your data.
When you need to mount an encrypted partition which is not mounted during the boot
process, open your favorite file manager and click on the partition entry in the pane
listing common places on your file system. You will be prompted for a password and
the partition will be mounted.
When you are installing your system on a machine where partitions already exist, you
can also decide to encrypt an existing partition during installation. In this case follow the description in Section 11.1.2, “Creating an Encrypted Partition on a Running
System” (page 152) and be aware that this action destroys all data on the existing
partition.
11.1.2 Creating an Encrypted Partition on
a Running System
WARNING: Activating Encryption on a Running System
It is also possible to create encrypted partitions on a running system. However, encrypting an existing partition destroys all data on it, and requires resizing and restructuring of existing partitions.
On a running system, select System > Partitioner in the YaST Control Center. Click
Yes to proceed. In the Expert Partitioner, select the partition to encrypt and click Edit.
The rest of the procedure is the same as described in Section 11.1.1, “Creating an Encrypted Partition during Installation” (page 150).
11.1.3 Creating an Encrypted File as a
Container
Instead of using a partition, it is possible to create an encrypted file, which can hold
other files or folders containing confidential data. Such container files are created
from the YaST Expert Partitioner dialog. Select Crypt Files > Add Crypt File and enter
the full path to the file and its size. If YaST should create the container file, activate
the check box Create Loop File. Accept or change the proposed formatting settings
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and the file system type. Specify the mount point and make sure that Encrypt Device is
checked.
Click Next, enter your password for decrypting the file, and confirm with Finish.
The advantage of encrypted container files over encrypted partitions is that they can
be added without repartitioning the hard disk. They are mounted with the help of a
loop device and behave just like normal partitions.
11.1.4 Encrypting the Content of
Removable Media
YaST treats removable media (like external hard disks or USB flash drives) the same
as any other hard disk. Container files or partitions on such media can be encrypted as
described above. Do not, however, enable mounting at boot time, because removable
media are usually only connected while the system is running.
If you encrypted your removable device with YaST, the KDE and GNOME desktops
automatically recognize the encrypted partition and prompt for the password when the
device is detected. If you plug in a FAT formatted removable device while running
KDE or GNOME, the desktop user entering the password automatically becomes the
owner of the device and can read and write files. For devices with a file system other
than FAT, change the ownership explicitly for users other than root to enable these
users to read or write files on the device.
11.2 Using Encrypted Home
Directories
To protect data in home directories from being stolen and consequent unauthorized
access, use the YaST user management module to enable encryption of home directories. You can create encrypted home directories for new or existing users. To encrypt
or decrypt home directories of already existing users, you need to know their login
password. See Section “Managing Encrypted Home Directories” (Chapter 12, Managing Users with YaST, ↑Deployment Guide) for instructions.
Encrypted home partitions are created within a file container as described in Section 11.1.3, “Creating an Encrypted File as a Container” (page 152). Two files are
created under /home for each encrypted home directory:
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LOGIN.img
The image holding the directory
LOGIN.key
The image key, protected with the user's login password.
On login, the home directory automatically gets decrypted. Internally, it works
through the pam module called pam_mount. If you need to add an additional login
method that provides encrypted home directories, you have to add this module to the
respective configuration file in /etc/pam.d/. For more information see also Chapter 2, Authentication with PAM (page 17) and the man page of pam_mount.
WARNING: Security Restrictions
Encrypting a user's home directory does not provide strong security from other users. If strong security is required, the system should not be shared physically.
To enhance security, also encrypt the swap partition and the /tmp and /
var/tmp directories, because these may contain temporary images of critical data. You can encrypt swap, /tmp, and /var/tmp with the YaST partitioner as described in Section 11.1.1, “Creating an Encrypted Partition during
Installation” (page 150) or Section 11.1.3, “Creating an Encrypted File as a
Container” (page 152).
11.3 Using vi to Encrypt Single
ASCII Text Files
The disadvantage of using encrypted partitions is obvious: While the partition is
mounted, at least root can access the data. To prevent this, vi can be used in encrypted mode.
Use vi -x filename to edit a new file. vi prompts you to set a password, after
which it encrypts the content of the file. Whenever you access this file, vi requests the
correct password.
For even more security, you can place the encrypted text file in an encrypted partition. This is recommended because the encryption used in vi is not very strong.
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Certificate Store
Certificates play an important role in the authentication of companies and individuals. Usually certificates are administered by the application itself. In some cases, it
makes sense to share certificates between applications. The certificate store is a common ground for Firefox, Evolution, and NetworkManager. This chapter explains some
details.
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The certificate store is a common database for Firefox, Evolution, and NetworkManager at the moment. Other applications that use certificates are not covered but may
be in the future. If you have such an application, you can continue to use its private,
separate configuration.
12.1 Activating Certificate Store
The configuration is mostly done in the background. To activate it, proceed as follows:
1 Decide if you want to activate the certificate store globally (for every user on your
system) or specifically to a certain user:
• For every user Use the file /etc/profile.local
• For a specific user Use the file ~/.bashrc
2 Open the file from the previous step and insert the following line:
export NSS_USE_SHARED_DB=1
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Save the file
3 Log out of and log in to your desktop.
All the certificates are stored under $HOME/.local/var/pki/nssdb/.
12.2 Importing Certificates
To import a certificate into the certificate store, do the following:
1 Start Firefox.
2 Open the dialog from Edit > Preferences. Change to Advanced > Encryption and
click on View Certificates.
3 Import your certificate depending on your type: use Servers to import server certificate, People to identify other, and Your Certificates to identify yourself.
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Intrusion Detection with
AIDE
13
Securing your systems is a mandatory task for any mission-critical system administrator. Because it is impossible to always guarantee that the system is not compromised,
it is very important to do extra checks regularly (for example with cron) to ensure that
the system is still under your control. This is where AIDE, the Advanced Intrusion Detection Environment, comes into play.
13.1 Why Using AIDE?
An easy check that often can reveal unwanted changes can be done by means of RPM.
The package manager has a built-in verify function that checks all the managed files
in the system for changes. To verify of all files, run the command rpm -Va. However, this command will also display changes in configuration files and you will have to
do some filtering to detect important changes.
An additional problem to the method with RPM is that an intelligent attacker will
modify rpm itself to hide any changes that might have been done by some kind of
rootkit which allows the attacker to mask its intrusion and gain root privilege. To
solve this, you should implement a secondary check that can also be run completely
independent of the installed system.
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13.2 Setting Up an AIDE Database
IMPORTANT: Initialize AIDE Database After Installation
Before you install your system, verify the checksum of your medium (see
Section “Checking Media” (Chapter 35, Common Problems and Their Solutions, ↑Administration Guide)) to make sure you do not use a compromised
source. After you have installed the system, initialize the AIDE database. To
be really sure that all went well during and after the installation, do an installation directly on the console, without any network attached to the computer.
Do not leave the computer unattended or connected to any network before
AIDE creates its database.
AIDE is not installed by default on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. To install it, either
use Computer > Install Software, or enter zypper install aide on the command line as root.
To tell AIDE which attributes of which files should be checked, use the /etc/
aide.conf configuration file. It must be modified to become the actual configuration. The first section handles general parameters like the location of the AIDE database file. More relevant for local configurations are the Custom Rules and the
Directories and Files sections. A typical rule looks like the following:
Binlib
= p+i+n+u+g+s+b+m+c+md5+sha1
After defining the variable Binlib, the respective checking options are used in the
files section. Important options include the following:
Table 13.1: Important AIDE Checking Options
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Option
Description
p
Check for the file permissions of the
selected files or directories.
i
Check for the inode number. Every
filename has a unique inode number
that should not change.
n
Check for the number of links pointing to the relevant file.
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Option
Description
u
Check if the owner of the file has
changed.
g
Check if the group of the file has
changed.
s
Check if the file size has changed.
b
Check if the block count used by the
file has changed.
m
Check if the modification time of the
file has changed.
c
Check if the files access time has
changed.
md5
Check if the md5 checksum of the
file has changed.
sha1
Check if the sha1 (160 Bit) checksum
of the file has changed.
This is a configuration that checks for all files in /sbin with the options defined in
Binlib but omits the /sbin/conf.d/ directory:
/sbin Binlib
!/sbin/conf.d
To create the AIDE database, proceed as follows:
1 Open /etc/aide.conf.
2 Define which files should be checked with which checking options. For a complete
list of available checking options, see /usr/share/doc/packages/aide/
manual.html. The definition of the file selection needs some knowledge about
regular expressions. Save your modifications.
3 To check whether the configuration file is valid, run:
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aide --config-check
Any output of this command is a hint that the configuration is not valid. For example, if you get the following output:
aide --config-check
35:syntax error:!
35:Error while reading configuration:!
Configuration error
The error is to be expected in line 36 of /etc/aide.conf. Note that the error
message contains the last successfully read line of the configuration file.
4 Initialize the AIDE database. Run the command:
aide -i
5 Copy the generated database to a save location like a CD-R or DVD-R, a remote
server or a USB disk for later use.
IMPORTANT:
This step is essential as it avoids compromising your database. It is recommended to use a medium which can be written only once to prevent
the database being modified. Never leave the database on the computer
which you want to monitor.
13.3 Local AIDE Checks
To perform a file system check, proceed as follows:
1 Rename the database:
mv /var/lib/aide/aide.db.new /var/lib/aide/aide.db
2 After any configuration change, you always have to reinitialize the AIDE database and subsequently move the newly generated database. It is also a good
idea to make a backup of this database. See Section 13.2, “Setting Up an AIDE
Database” (page 158) for more information.
3 Perform the check with the following command:
aide --check
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If the output is empty, everything is fine. If AIDE found changes, it displays a summary of changes, for example:
aide --check
AIDE found differences between database and filesystem!!
Summary:
Total number of files:
Added files:
Removed files:
Changed files:
1992
0
0
1
To learn about the actual changes, increase the verbose level of the check with the parameter -V. For the previous example, this could look like the following:
aide --check -V
AIDE found differences between database and filesystem!!
Start timestamp: 2009-02-18 15:14:10
Summary:
Total number of files:
Added files:
Removed files:
Changed files:
1992
0
0
1
--------------------------------------------------Changed files:
--------------------------------------------------changed: /etc/passwd
-------------------------------------------------Detailed information about changes:
---------------------------------------------------
File: /etc/passwd
Mtime
: 2009-02-18 15:11:02
Ctime
: 2009-02-18 15:11:02
, 2009-02-18 15:11:47
, 2009-02-18 15:11:47
In this example, the file /etc/passwd was touched to demonstrate the effect.
13.4 System Independent Checking
For the risk-averse administrator (and of course this is all about risk-aversion) it is advisable to also run the AIDE binary from a trusted source. This excludes the risk that
some attacker also modified the aide binary to hide his traces.
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To accomplish this task, AIDE must be run from a rescue system that is independent
of the installed system. With SUSE Linux Enterprise Server it is relatively easy to extend the rescue system with arbitrary programs, and thus add the needed functionality.
Before you can start using the rescue system, you need to provide two packages to the
system. These are included with the same syntax as you would add a driver update
disk to the system. For a detailed description about the possibilities of linuxrc that are
used for this purpose, see http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Linuxrc. In the
following, one possible way to accomplish this task is discussed.
Procedure 13.1: Starting a Rescue System with AIDE
1 Provide an FTP server as a second machine.
2 Copy the packages aide and mhash to the FTP server directory, in our case /
srv/ftp/. Replace the placeholders ARCH and VERSION with the corresponding values:
cp DVD1/suse/ARCH/aideVERSION.ARCH.rpm /srv/ftp
cp DVD1/suse/ARCH/mhashVERSION.ARCH.rpm /srv/ftp
3 Create an info file /srv/ftp/info.txt that provides the needed boot parameters for the rescue system:
dud:ftp://ftp.example.com/aideVERSION.ARCH.rpm
dud:ftp://ftp.example.com/mhashVERSION.ARCH.rpm
Replace your FTP domain name, VERSION and ARCH with the values used on
your system.
4 Restart the server that needs to go through an AIDE check with the Rescue system
from your DVD. Add the following string to the boot parameters:
info=ftp://ftp.example.com/info.txt
This parameter tells linuxrc to also read in all information from the info.txt
file.
After the rescue system has booted, the AIDE program is ready for use.
13.5 For More Information
Information about AIDE is available at the following places:
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• The home page of AIDE http://aide.sourceforge.net
• In the documented template configuration /etc/aide.conf.
• In several files below /usr/share/doc/packages/aide after installing the
aide package.
• On the AIDE user mailing list at https://mailman.cs.tut.fi/mail
man/listinfo/aide.
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Part III. Network Security
SSH: Secure Network
Operations
In networked environments, it is often necessary to access hosts from a remote location. If a user sends login and password strings for authentication purposes as plain
text, they could be intercepted and misused to gain access to that user account without
the authorized user knowing about it. This would open all the user's files to an attacker and the illegal account could be used to obtain administrator or root access, or to
penetrate other systems. In the past, remote connections were established with telnet, rsh or rlogin, which offered no guards against eavesdropping in the form of
encryption or other security mechanisms. There are other unprotected communication
channels, like the traditional FTP protocol and some remote copying programs like
rcp.
14
The SSH suite provides the necessary protection by encrypting the authentication
strings (usually a login name and a password) and all the other data exchanged between the hosts. With SSH, the data flow could still be recorded by a third party, but
the contents are encrypted and cannot be reverted to plain text unless the encryption
key is known. So SSH enables secure communication over insecure networks, such as
the Internet. The SSH implementation coming with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is
OpenSSH.
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server installs the OpenSSH package by default providing
the commands ssh, scp, and sftp. In the default configuration, remote access of a
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server system is only possible with the OpenSSH utilities, and
only if the sshd is running and the firewall permits access.
14.1 ssh—Secure Shell
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By using the ssh program, it is possible to log in to remote systems and to work interactively. To log in to the host sun as user tux user one of the following commands:
ssh tux@sun
ssh -l tux sun
If the username is the same on both machines, you may omit it: ssh sun. The remote host prompts for the remote user's password. After a successful authentication,
you can work on the remote command line or use interactive applications, such as
YaST in text mode.
Furthermore, ssh offers the possibility to just run non-interactive commands on remote systems by running ssh HOST COMMAND. COMMAND needs to be properly
quoted. Multiple commands can be concatenated as on a regular shell.
ssh root@sun "dmesg | tail -n 25"
ssh root@sun "cat /etc/issue && uptime"
14.1.1 Starting X Applications on a
Remote Host
SSH also simplifies the use of remote X applications. If you run ssh with the -X option, the DISPLAY variable is automatically set on the remote machine and all X output is exported to the remote machine over the existing SSH connection. At the same
time, X applications started remotely cannot be intercepted by unauthorized individuals.
14.1.2 Agent Forwarding
By adding the -A option, the ssh-agent authentication mechanism is carried over to
the next machine. This way, you can work from different machines without having to
enter a password, but only if you have distributed your public key to the destination
hosts and properly saved it there.
This mechanism is deactivated in the default settings, but can be permanently activated at any time in the systemwide configuration file /etc/ssh/sshd_config by
setting AllowAgentForwarding yes.
14.2 scp—Secure Copy
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scp copies files to or from a remote machine. If the username on jupiter is different
than the username on sun, specify the latter using the username@host format. If
the file should be copied into a directory other then the remote user's home directory,
specify it as sun:DIRECTORY. The following examples show how to copy a file from
a local to a remote machine and vice versa.
# local -> remote
scp ~/MyLetter.tex tux@sun:/tmp
# remote -> local
scp tux@sun:/tmp/MyLetter.tex ~
TIP: The -l Option
With the ssh command, the option -l can be used to specify a remote user
(as an alternative to the username@host format). With scp the option -l is
used to limit the bandwidth consumed by scp.
After the correct password is entered, scp starts the data transfer. It displays a
progress bar and the time remaining for each file that is copied. Suppress all output
with the -q option.
scp also provides a recursive copying feature for entire directories. The command
scp -r src/ sun:backup/
copies the entire contents of the directory src including all subdirectories to the ~/
backup directory on the host sun. If this subdirectory does not exist it is created automatically.
The -p option tells scp to leave the time stamp of files unchanged. -C compresses the
data transfer. This minimizes the data volume to transfer, but creates a heavier burden
on the processors of both machines.
14.3 sftp—Secure File Transfer
If you want to copy several files from and/or to different locations, sftp is a convenient alternative to scp. It opens a shell with a set of commands similar to a regular
ftp shell. Type help at the sftp-prompt to get a list of available commands. More details are available from the sftp (1) man page.
sftp sun
Enter passphrase for key '/home/tux/.ssh/id_rsa':
Connected to sun.
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sftp> help
Available commands:
bye
cd path
[...]
Quit sftp
Change remote directory to 'path'
14.4 The SSH Daemon (sshd)
To work with the SSH client programs ssh and scp, a server (the SSH daemon) must
be running in the background, listening for connections on TCP/IP port 22. The
daemon generates three key pairs when starting for the first time. Each key pair consists of a private and a public key. Therefore, this procedure is referred to as public
key-based. To guarantee the security of the communication via SSH, access to the private key files must be restricted to the system administrator. The file permissions are
set accordingly by the default installation. The private keys are only required locally
by the SSH daemon and must not be given to anyone else. The public key components
(recognizable by the name extension .pub) are sent to the client requesting the connection. They are readable for all users.
A connection is initiated by the SSH client. The waiting SSH daemon and the requesting SSH client exchange identification data to compare the protocol and software versions, and to prevent connections through the wrong port. Because a child process of
the original SSH daemon replies to the request, several SSH connections can be made
simultaneously.
For the communication between SSH server and SSH client, OpenSSH supports versions 1 and 2 of the SSH protocol. Version 2 of the SSH protocol is used by default.
Override this to use version 1 of protocol with the -1 option.
When using version 1 of SSH, the server sends its public host key and a server key,
which is regenerated by the SSH daemon every hour. Both allow the SSH client to encrypt a freely chosen session key, which is sent to the SSH server. The SSH client also tells the server which encryption method (cipher) to use. Version 2 of the SSH protocol does not require a server key. Both sides use an algorithm according to DiffieHellman to exchange their keys.
The private host and server keys are absolutely required to decrypt the session key and
cannot be derived from the public parts. Only the contacted SSH daemon can decrypt
the session key using its private keys. This initial connection phase can be watched
closely by turning on verbose debugging using the -v option of the SSH client.
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It is recommended to back up the private and public keys stored in /etc/ssh/ in
a secure, external location. In this way, key modifications can be detected or the old
ones can be used again after having installed a new system.
TIP: Existing SSH Host Keys
If you install SUSE Linux Enterprise Server on a machine with existing Linux
installations, the installation routine automatically imports the SSH host key
with the most recent access time from an existing installation.
When establishing a secure connection with a remote host for the first time, the client
stores all public host keys in ~/.ssh/known_hosts. This prevents any manin-the-middle attacks—attempts by foreign SSH servers to use spoofed names and
IP addresses. Such attacks are detected either by a host key that is not included in
~/.ssh/known_hosts, or by the server's inability to decrypt the session key in
the absence of an appropriate private counterpart.
In case the public keys of a host have really changed (something that needs to be verified before attempting to connect to such a server), the offending keys can be removed with the command ssh-keygen -r HOSTNAME
14.5 SSH Authentication
Mechanisms
In it's simplest form, authentication is done by entering the user's password just as if
logging in locally. However, having to memorize passwords of several users on remote
machines, is inefficient. Whats more, these passwords may change. On the other hand
—when granting root access—an administrator needs to be able to quickly revoke
such a permission without having to change the root password.
In order to accomplish a login that does not require to enter the remote user's password, SSH uses another key pair, which needs to be generated by the user. It consists of a public (id_rsa.pub or id_dsa.pub) and a private key (id_rsa or
id_dsa).
In order to be able to log in without having to specify the remote user's password, the
public key of the “SSH user” must be present in ~/.ssh/authorized_keys.
This approach also ensures that the remote user has got full control: adding the key reSSH: Secure Network Operations
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quires the remote user's password and removing the key revokes the permission to log
in from remote.
For maximum security such a key should be protected by a passphrase which needs to
be entered every time you use ssh, scp, or sftp. Contrary to the simple authentication, this passphrase is independent from the remote user and therefore always the
same.
An alternative to the key-based authentication described above, SSH also offers a
host-based authentication. With host-based authentication, users on a trusted host can
log in to another host on which this feature is enabled using the same username. SUSE
Linux Enterprise Server is set up for using key-based authentication, covering setting
up host-based authentication on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is beyond the scope of
this manual.
NOTE: File Permissions for Host-Based Authentication
If the host-based authentication is to be used, the file /usr/lib/ssh/sshkeysign (32-bit systems) or /usr/lib64/ssh/ssh-keysign (64-bit
systems) should have the setuid bit set, which is not the default setting in
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. In such case, set the file permissions manually. You should use /etc/permissions.local for this purpose, to make
sure that the setuid bit is preserved after security updates of openssh.
14.5.1 Generating an SSH Key
1 To generate a key with default parameters (RSA, 2048 bits), enter the command
ssh-keygen.
2 Accept the default location to store the key (~/.ssh/id_rsa) be pressing Enter
(strongly recommended) or enter an alternative location.
3 Enter a passphrase consisting of 10 to 30 characters. The same rules as for creating safe passwords apply. It is strongly advised to refrain from specifying no
passphrase.
You should make absolutely sure that the private key is not accessible by anyone other
than yourself (always set its permissions to 0600). The private key must never fall into the hands of another person.
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In order to change the password of an existing key pair, use the command ssh-keygen -p.
14.5.2 Copying an SSH Key
To copy a public SSH key to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys of a user on a remote
machine, use the command ssh-copy-id. In order to copy your personal key
stored under ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub you may use the short form. In order to copy
DSA keys or keys of other users, you need to specify the path:
# ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
ssh-copy-id -i tux@sun
# ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub
ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub
tux@sun
# ~notme/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
ssh-copy-id -i ~notme/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
tux@sun
In order to successfully copy the key, you need to enter the remote user's password.
To remove an existing key, manually edit ~/.ssh/authorized_keys.
14.5.3 Using the ssh-agent
When doing lots of secure shell operations it is cumbersome to type the SSH
passphrase for each such operation. Therefore, the SSH package provides another
tool, ssh-agent, which retains the private keys for the duration of an X or terminal session. All other windows or programs are started as clients to the ssh-agent.
By starting the agent, a set of environment variables is set, which will be used by ssh,
scp, or sftp to locate the agent for automatic login. See man 1 ssh-agent for
details.
Once the ssh-agent is started, you need to add your keys by using ssh-add. It
will prompt for the passphrase. Once entered, you can use the secure shell commands
within the running session without having to provide your password.
14.5.3.1 Using ssh-agent in an X Session
On SUSE Linux Enterprise Server the ssh-agent is automatically started by the
GNOME or KDE display managers. In order to also invoke ssh-add to add your
keys to the agent at the beginning of an X session, do the following:
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1 Log in as the desired user and check whether the file ~/.xinitrc exists.
2 If it does not exist, use an existing template or copy it from /etc/skel:
if [ -f ~/.xinitrc.template ]; then mv ~/.xinitrc.template ~/.xinitrc; \
else cp /etc/skel/.xinitrc.template ~/.xinitrc; fi
3 If you have copied the template, search for the following lines and uncomment
them. If ~/.xinitrc already existed, add the following lines (without comment
signs).
# if test -S "$SSH_AUTH_SOCK" -a -x "$SSH_ASKPASS"; then
#
ssh-add < /dev/null
# fi
4 When starting a new X session, you will be prompted for your SSH passphrase.
14.5.3.2 Using ssh-agent in a Terminal Session
In a terminal session you need to manually start the ssh-agent and then call sshadd afterwards. There are two ways to start the agent. The first example given below
starts a new Bash shell on top of your existing shell. The second example starts the
agent in the existing shell and modifies the environment as needed.
ssh-agent -s /bin/bash
eval $(ssh-agent)
After the agent has been started, run ssh-add to provide the agent with your keys.
14.6 Port Forwarding
ssh can also be used to redirect TCP/IP connections. This feature, also called SSH
tunneling, redirects TCP connections to a certain port to another machine via an
encrypted channel.
With the following command, any connection directed to jupiter port 25 (SMTP) is
redirected to the SMTP port on sun. This is especially useful for those using SMTP
servers without SMTP-AUTH or POP-before-SMTP features. From any arbitrary location connected to a network, e-mail can be transferred to the “home” mail server for
delivery.
ssh -L 25:sun:25 jupiter
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Similarly, all POP3 requests (port 110) on jupiter can be forwarded to the POP3 port
of sun with this command:
ssh -L 110:sun:110 jupiter
Both commands must be executed as root, because the connection is made to privileged local ports. E-mail is sent and retrieved by normal users in an existing SSH
connection. The SMTP and POP3 host must be set to localhost for this to work.
Additional information can be found in the manual pages for each of the programs
described above and also in the OpenSSH package documentation under /usr/
share/doc/packages/openssh.
14.7 Configuring An SSH Daemon
with YaST
To configure an sshd server with YaST run YaST and choose Network Services >
SSHD Configuration. Then proceed as follows:
1 On the General tab, select the ports sshd should listen on in the SSHD TCP Ports
table. The default port number is 22. Multiple ports are allowed. To add a new
port, click Add, enter the port number and click OK. To delete a port, select it in
the table, click Delete and confirm.
2 Select the features the sshd daemon should support. To disable TCP forwarding,
uncheck Allow TCP Forwarding. Disabling TCP forwarding does not improve security unless users are also denied shell access, as they can always install their own
forwarders. See Section 14.6, “Port Forwarding” (page 174) for more information about TCP forwarding.
To disable X forwarding, uncheck Allow X11 Forwarding. If this option is disabled, any X11 forward requests by the client will return an error. However
users can always install their own forwarders. See Section 14.1, “ssh—Secure
Shell” (page 167) for more information about X forwarding.
In Allow Compression determine, whether the connection between the server and
clients should be compressed. After setting these options, click Next.
3 The Login Settings tab contains general login and authentication settings. In Print
Message of the Day After Login determine, whether sshd should print message
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from /etc/motd when a user logs in interactively. If you want to disable connection of a user root, uncheck Permit Root Login.
In Maximum Authentication Tries enter the maximum allowed number of authentication attempts per connection. RSA Authentication specifies whether pure RSA
authentication is allowed. This option applies to SSH protocol version 1 only. Public Key Authentication specifies whether public key authentication is allowed. This
option applies to protocol version 2 only.
4 On the Protocol and Ciphers tab, determine which versions of the SSH protocol
should be supported. You can choose to support version 1 only, version 2 only, or
to support both SSH version 2 and 1.
Under Supported Ciphers, all supported ciphers are listed. You can remove a cipher
by selecting it in the list and clicking Delete. To add a cipher to the list, select it
from the dropdown menu and click Add.
5 Click Finish to save the configuration.
14.8 For More Information
http://www.openssh.com
The home page of OpenSSH
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/OpenSSH
The OpenSSH Wikibook
man sshd
Manpage of the OpenSSH daemon
man ssh_config
Manpage of the OpenSSH SSH client configuration files
man scp , man sftp , man slogin , man ssh , man ssh-add , man
ssh-agent , man ssh-copy-id , man ssh-keyconvert , man sshkeygen , man ssh-keyscan
Manpage of several binary files to copy (scp, sftp), login (slogin, ssh), and
manage keys.
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15
Masquerading and
Firewalls
Whenever Linux is used in a network environment, you can use the kernel functions
that allow the manipulation of network packets to maintain a separation between internal and external network areas. The Linux netfilter framework provides the
means to establish an effective firewall that keeps different networks apart. With the
help of iptables—a generic table structure for the definition of rule sets—precisely
control the packets allowed to pass a network interface. Such a packet filter can be set
up quite easily with the help of SuSEfirewall2 and the corresponding YaST module.
15.1 Packet Filtering with iptables
The components netfilter and iptables are responsible for the filtering and
manipulation of network packets as well as for network address translation (NAT).
The filtering criteria and any actions associated with them are stored in chains, which
must be matched one after another by individual network packets as they arrive. The
chains to match are stored in tables. The iptables command allows you to alter
these tables and rule sets.
The Linux kernel maintains three tables, each for a particular category of functions of
the packet filter:
filter
This table holds the bulk of the filter rules, because it implements the packet filtering mechanism in the stricter sense, which determines whether packets are let
through (ACCEPT) or discarded (DROP), for example.
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nat
This table defines any changes to the source and target addresses of packets. Using these functions also allows you to implement masquerading, which is a special
case of NAT used to link a private network with the Internet.
mangle
The rules held in this table make it possible to manipulate values stored in IP
headers (such as the type of service).
These tables contain several predefined chains to match packets:
PREROUTING
This chain is applied to incoming packets.
INPUT
This chain is applied to packets destined for the system's internal processes.
FORWARD
This chain is applied to packets that are only routed through the system.
OUTPUT
This chain is applied to packets originating from the system itself.
POSTROUTING
This chain is applied to all outgoing packets.
Figure 15.1, “iptables: A Packet's Possible Paths” (page 179) illustrates the paths
along which a network packet may travel on a given system. For the sake of simplicity, the figure lists tables as parts of chains, but in reality these chains are held within
the tables themselves.
In the simplest of all possible cases, an incoming packet destined for the system itself
arrives at the eth0 interface. The packet is first referred to the PREROUTING chain
of the mangle table then to the PREROUTING chain of the nat table. The following step, concerning the routing of the packet, determines that the actual target of the
packet is a process of the system itself. After passing the INPUT chains of the mangle and the filter table, the packet finally reaches its target, provided that the
rules of the filter table are actually matched.
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Figure 15.1: iptables: A Packet's Possible Paths
PREROUTING
incoming packet
mangle
nat
INPUT
mangle
Routing
filter
FORWARD
Processes
mangle
in the local
system
filter
OUTPUT
Routing
mangle
nat
filter
POSTROUTING
mangle
nat
outgoing packet
15.2 Masquerading Basics
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179
Masquerading is the Linux-specific form of NAT (network address translation). It
can be used to connect a small LAN (where hosts use IP addresses from the private
range—see Section “Netmasks and Routing” (Chapter 21, Basic Networking, ↑Administration Guide)) with the Internet (where official IP addresses are used). For the LAN
hosts to be able to connect to the Internet, their private addresses are translated to an
official one. This is done on the router, which acts as the gateway between the LAN
and the Internet. The underlying principle is a simple one: The router has more than
one network interface, typically a network card and a separate interface connecting
with the Internet. While the latter links the router with the outside world, one or several others link it with the LAN hosts. With these hosts in the local network connected
to the network card (such as eth0) of the router, they can send any packets not destined for the local network to their default gateway or router.
IMPORTANT: Using the Correct Network Mask
When configuring your network, make sure both the broadcast address and
the netmask are the same for all local hosts. Failing to do so prevents packets from being routed properly.
As mentioned, whenever one of the LAN hosts sends a packet destined for an Internet address, it goes to the default router. However, the router must be configured before it can forward such packets. For security reasons, this is not enabled in a default
installation. To enable it, set the variable IP_FORWARD in the file /etc/syscon
fig/sysctl to IP_FORWARD=yes.
The target host of the connection can see your router, but knows nothing about the
host in your internal network where the packets originated. This is why the technique
is called masquerading. Because of the address translation, the router is the first destination of any reply packets. The router must identify these incoming packets and
translate their target addresses, so packets can be forwarded to the correct host in the
local network.
With the routing of inbound traffic depending on the masquerading table, there is no
way to open a connection to an internal host from the outside. For such a connection,
there would be no entry in the table. In addition, any connection already established
has a status entry assigned to it in the table, so the entry cannot be used by another
connection.
As a consequence of all this, you might experience some problems with a number of
application protocols, such as ICQ, cucme, IRC (DCC, CTCP), and FTP (in PORT
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mode). Web browsers, the standard FTP program, and many other programs use the
PASV mode. This passive mode is much less problematic as far as packet filtering
and masquerading are concerned.
15.3 Firewalling Basics
Firewall is probably the term most widely used to describe a mechanism that provides
and manages a link between networks while also controlling the data flow between
them. Strictly speaking, the mechanism described in this section is called a packet filter. A packet filter regulates the data flow according to certain criteria, such as protocols, ports, and IP addresses. This allows you to block packets that, according to
their addresses, are not supposed to reach your network. To allow public access to
your Web server, for example, explicitly open the corresponding port. However, a
packet filter does not scan the contents of packets with legitimate addresses, such as
those directed to your Web server. For example, if incoming packets were intended to
compromise a CGI program on your Web server, the packet filter would still let them
through.
A more effective but more complex mechanism is the combination of several types
of systems, such as a packet filter interacting with an application gateway or proxy.
In this case, the packet filter rejects any packets destined for disabled ports. Only
packets directed to the application gateway are accepted. This gateway or proxy pretends to be the actual client of the server. In a sense, such a proxy could be considered a masquerading host on the protocol level used by the application. One example
for such a proxy is Squid, an HTTP and FTP proxy server. To use Squid, the browser must be configured to communicate via the proxy. Any HTTP pages or FTP files
requested are served from the proxy cache and objects not found in the cache are
fetched from the Internet by the proxy.
The following section focuses on the packet filter that comes with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. For further information about packet filtering and firewalling, read the
Firewall HOWTO included in the howto package. If this package is installed, read
the HOWTO with
less /usr/share/doc/howto/en/txt/Firewall-HOWTO.gz
15.4 SuSEfirewall2
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SuSEfirewall2 is a script that reads the variables set in /etc/sysconfig/SuSE
firewall2 to generate a set of iptables rules. It defines three security zones, although only the first and the second one are considered in the following sample configuration:
External Zone
Given that there is no way to control what is happening on the external network,
the host needs to be protected from it. In most cases, the external network is the
Internet, but it could be another insecure network, such as a WLAN.
Internal Zone
This refers to the private network, in most cases the LAN. If the hosts on this
network use IP addresses from the private range (see Section “Netmasks and
Routing” (Chapter 21, Basic Networking, ↑Administration Guide)), enable network
address translation (NAT), so hosts on the internal network can access the external one. All ports are open in the internal zone. The main benefit of putting interfaces into the internal zone (rather than stopping the firewall) is that the firewall
still runs, so when you add new interfaces, they will be put into the external zone
by default. That way an interface is not accidentally “open” by default.
Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)
While hosts located in this zone can be reached both from the external and the
internal network, they cannot access the internal network themselves. This setup
can be used to put an additional line of defense in front of the internal network,
because the DMZ systems are isolated from the internal network.
Any kind of network traffic not explicitly allowed by the filtering rule set is suppressed by iptables. Therefore, each of the interfaces with incoming traffic must be
placed into one of the three zones. For each of the zones, define the services or protocols allowed. The rule set is only applied to packets originating from remote hosts.
Locally generated packets are not captured by the firewall.
The configuration can be performed with YaST (see Section 15.4.1, “Configuring the
Firewall with YaST” (page 183)). It can also be made manually in the file /etc/
sysconfig/SuSEfirewall2, which is well commented. Additionally, a number of example scenarios are available in /usr/share/doc/packages/SuSE
firewall2/EXAMPLES.
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15.4.1 Configuring the Firewall with YaST
IMPORTANT: Automatic Firewall Configuration
After the installation, YaST automatically starts a firewall on all configured
interfaces. If a server is configured and activated on the system, YaST can
modify the automatically-generated firewall configuration with the options
Open Ports on Selected Interface in Firewall or Open Ports on Firewall in
the server configuration modules. Some server module dialogs include a
Firewall Details button for activating additional services and ports. The YaST
firewall configuration module can be used to activate, deactivate, or reconfigure the firewall.
The YaST dialogs for the graphical configuration can be accessed from the YaST
Control Center. Select Security and Users > Firewall. The configuration is divided into
seven sections that can be accessed directly from the tree structure on the left side.
Start-Up
Set the start-up behavior in this dialog. In a default installation, SuSEfirewall2
is started automatically. You can also start and stop the firewall here. To implement your new settings in a running firewall, use Save Settings and Restart Firewall Now.
Interfaces
All known network interfaces are listed here. To remove an interface from a
zone, select the interface, press Change, and choose No Zone Assigned. To add an
interface to a zone, select the interface, press Change and choose any of the available zones. You may also create a special interface with your own settings by using Custom.
Allowed Services
You need this option to offer services from your system to a zone from which it
is protected. By default, the system is only protected from external zones. Explicitly allow the services that should be available to external hosts. After selecting
the desired zone in Allowed Services for Selected Zone, activate the services from
the list.
Masquerading
Masquerading hides your internal network from external networks (such as the
Internet) while enabling hosts in the internal network to access the external netMasquerading and Firewalls
183
work transparently. Requests from the external network to the internal one are
blocked and requests from the internal network seem to be issued by the masquerading server when seen externally. If special services of an internal machine
need to be available to the external network, add special redirect rules for the service.
Broadcast
In this dialog, configure the UDP ports that allow broadcasts. Add the required
port numbers or services to the appropriate zone, separated by spaces. See also
the file /etc/services.
The logging of broadcasts that are not accepted can be enabled here. This may be
problematic, because Windows hosts use broadcasts to know about each other and
so generate many packets that are not accepted.
IPsec Support
Configure whether the IPsec service should be available to the external network
in this dialog. Configure which packets are trusted under Details.
There is another functionality under Details: IPsec packets are packed in an encrypted format, so they have to be decrypted and you can configure the way the
firewall will handle the decrypted packets. If you select Internal Zone, the decrypted IPsec packets will be trusted as if they came from the Internal Zone - although they could possibly come from the external one. Choose Same Zone as
Original Source Network to avoid this situation.
Logging Level
There are two rules for logging: accepted and not accepted packets. Packets that
are not accepted are DROPPED or REJECTED. Select from Log All, Log Only
Critical, or Do Not Log Any.
Custom Rules
Here, set special firewall rules that allow connections, matching specified criteria such as source network, protocol, destination port, and source port. Configure
such rules for external, internal, and demilitarized zones.
When finished with the firewall configuration, exit this dialog with Next. A zone-oriented summary of your firewall configuration then opens. In it, check all settings. All
services, ports, and protocols that have been allowed and all custom rules are listed in
this summary. To modify the configuration, use Back. Press Finish to save your configuration.
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15.4.2 Configuring Manually
The following paragraphs provide step-by-step instructions for a successful configuration. Each configuration item is marked as to whether it is relevant to firewalling or
masquerading. Use port range (for example, 500:510) whenever appropriate. Aspects related to the DMZ (demilitarized zone) as mentioned in the configuration file
are not covered here. They are applicable only to a more complex network infrastructure found in larger organizations (corporate networks), which require extensive configuration and in-depth knowledge about the subject.
First, use the YaST module System Services (Runlevel) to enable SuSEfirewall2 in
your runlevel (3 or 5 most likely). It sets the symlinks for the SuSEfirewall2_* scripts
in the /etc/init.d/rc?.d/ directories.
FW_DEV_EXT (firewall, masquerading)
The device linked to the Internet. For a modem connection, enter ppp0. For an
ISDN link, use ippp0. DSL connections use dsl0. Specify auto to use the interface that corresponds to the default route.
FW_DEV_INT (firewall, masquerading)
The device linked to the internal, private network (such as eth0). Leave this
blank if there is no internal network and the firewall protects only the host on
which it runs.
FW_ROUTE (firewall, masquerading)
If you need the masquerading function, set this to yes. Your internal hosts
will not be visible to the outside, because their private network addresses (e.g.,
192.168.x.x) are ignored by Internet routers.
For a firewall without masquerading, set this to yes if you want to allow access
to the internal network. Your internal hosts need to use officially registered IP addresses in this case. Normally, however, you should not allow access to your internal network from the outside.
FW_MASQUERADE (masquerading)
Set this to yes if you need the masquerading function. This provides a virtually
direct connection to the Internet for the internal hosts. It is more secure to have
a proxy server between the hosts of the internal network and the Internet. Masquerading is not needed for services that a proxy server provides.
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FW_MASQ_NETS (masquerading)
Specify the hosts or networks to masquerade, leaving a space between the individual entries. For example:
FW_MASQ_NETS="192.168.0.0/24 192.168.10.1"
FW_PROTECT_FROM_INT (firewall)
Set this to yes to protect your firewall host from attacks originating in your internal network. Services are only available to the internal network if explicitly enabled. Also see FW_SERVICES_INT_TCP and FW_SERVICES_INT_UDP.
FW_SERVICES_EXT_TCP (firewall)
Enter the TCP ports that should be made available. Leave this blank for a normal
workstation at home that should not offer any services.
FW_SERVICES_EXT_UDP (firewall)
Leave this blank unless you run a UDP service and want to make it available
to the outside. The services that use UDP include include DNS servers, IPsec,
TFTP, DHCP and others. In that case, enter the UDP ports to use.
FW_SERVICES_ACCEPT_EXT (firewall)
List services to allow from the Internet. This is a more generic form of the
FW_SERVICES_EXT_TCP and FW_SERVICES_EXT_UDP settings, and
more specific than FW_TRUSTED_NETS. The notation is a space-separated list
of net,protocol[,dport][,sport], for example 0/0,tcp,22 or
0/0,tcp,22,,hitcount=3,blockseconds=60,recentname=ssh,
which means: allow a maximum of three SSH connects per minute from one IP
address.
FW_SERVICES_INT_TCP (firewall)
With this variable, define the services available for the internal network.
The notation is the same as for FW_SERVICES_EXT_TCP, but the settings are applied to the internal network. The variable only needs to be set if
FW_PROTECT_FROM_INT is set to yes.
FW_SERVICES_INT_UDP (firewall)
See FW_SERVICES_INT_TCP.
FW_SERVICES_ACCEPT_INT (firewall)
List services to allow from internal hosts. See FW_SERVICES_ACCEPT_EXT.
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FW_SERVICES_ACCEPT_RELATED_* (firewall)
This is how the SuSEfirewall2 implementation considers packets RELATED by
netfilter.
For example, to allow finer grained filtering of Samba broadcast packets,
RELATED packets are not accepted unconditionally. Variables starting with
FW_SERVICES_ACCEPT_RELATED_ allow restricting RELATED packets handling to certain networks, protocols and ports.
This means that adding connection tracking modules (conntrack modules) to
FW_LOAD_MODULES does not automatically result in accepting the packets tagged by those modules. Additionally, you must set variables starting with
FW_SERVICES_ACCEPT_RELATED_ to a suitable value.
FW_CUSTOMRULES (firewall)
Uncomment this variable to install custom rules. Find examples in /etc/
sysconfig/scripts/SuSEfirewall2-custom.
After configuring the firewall, test your setup. The firewall rule sets are created by
entering rcSuSEfirewall2 start as root. Then use telnet, for example,
from an external host to see whether the connection is actually denied. After that, review /var/log/messages, where you should see something like this:
Mar 15 13:21:38 linux kernel: SFW2-INext-DROP-DEFLT IN=eth0
OUT= MAC=00:80:c8:94:c3:e7:00:a0:c9:4d:27:56:08:00 SRC=192.168.10.0
DST=192.168.10.1 LEN=60 TOS=0x10 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=15330 DF PROTO=TCP
SPT=48091 DPT=23 WINDOW=5840 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
OPT (020405B40402080A061AFEBC0000000001030300)
Other packages to test your firewall setup are Nmap (portscanner) or OpenVAS
(Open Vulnerability Assessment System). The documentation of Nmap is found at /
usr/share/doc/packages/nmap after installing the package and the documentation of openVAS resides at http://www.openvas.org.
15.5 For More Information
The most up-to-date information and other documentation about the SuSEfirewall2 package is found in /usr/share/doc/packages/SuSE
firewall2. The home page of the netfilter and iptables project, http://
www.netfilter.org, provides a large collection of documents in many languages.
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16
Configuring VPN Server
Nowadays, the Internet connection is cheap and available almost everywhere. It is important that the connection is as secure as possible. Virtual Private Network (VPN
[http://www.openvpn.net]) is a secure network within a second, insecure network such as the Internet or WLAN. It can be implemented in different ways and
serves several purposes. In this chapter, we focus on VPNs to link branch offices via
secure wide area networks (WANs).
16.1 Conceptual Overview
This section defines some term regarding to VPN and introduces a brief overview of
some scenarios.
16.1.1 Terminology
Endpoint
The two “ends” of a tunnel, the source or destination client
Tap Device
A tap device simulates an Ethernet device (layer 2 packets in the OSI model such
as IP packets). A tap device is used for creating a network bridge. It works with
Ethernet frames.
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189
Tun Device
A tun device simulates a point-to-point network (layer 3 packets in the OSI model such as Ethernet frames). A tun device is used with routing and works with IP
frames.
Tunnel
Linking two locations through a primarily public network. From a more technical
viewpoint, it is a connection between the client's device and the server's device.
Usually a tunnel is encrypted, but it does need to be by definition.
16.1.2 VPN Scenarios
Whenever you setup a VPN connection your IP packets are transferred over your secured tunnel. A tunnel can use a so-called tun or tap device. They are virtual network
kernel drivers which implement the transmission of ethernet frames or ip frames/
packets.
Any userspace program OpenVPN can attach itself to a tun or tap device to receive
packets sent by your OS. The program is also able to write packets to the device.
There are many solutions to set up and build a VPN connection. This section focuses
on the OpenVPN package. Compared to other VPN software, OpenVPN can be operated in two modes:
Routed VPN
Routing is an easy solution to set up. It is more efficient and scales better than
bridged VPN. Furthermore, it allows the user to tune MTU (Maximum Transfer Unit) to raise efficiency. However, in a heterogeneous environment NetBIOS
broadcasts do not work if you do not have a Samba server on the gateway. If you
need IPv6, each tun drivers on both ends must support this protocol explicitly.
This scenario is depicted in Figure 16.1, “Routed VPN” (page 191).
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Figure 16.1: Routed VPN
Bridged VPN
Bridging is a more complex solution. It is recommended when you need to
browse Windows file shares across the VPN without setting up a Samba or WINS
server. Bridged VPN is also needed if you want to use non-IP protocols (such as
IPX) or applications relying on network broadcasts. However, it is less efficient
than routed VPN. Another disadvantage is that it does not scale well. This scenarios is depicted in the following figures.
Configuring VPN Server
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Figure 16.2: Bridged VPN - Scenario 1
Figure 16.3: Bridged VPN - Scenario 2
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Figure 16.4: Bridged VPN - Scenario 3
The major difference between bridging and routing is that a routed VPN cannot IPbroadcast while a bridged VPN can.
16.2 Creating the Simplest VPN
Example
The following example creates a point-to-point VPN tunnel. It demonstrates how to
create a VPN tunnel between one client and a server. It is assumed that your VPN
server will use private IP addresses like 192.168.1.120 and your client the IP address 192.168.2.110. You can modify these private IP addresses to your needs
but make sure you select addresses which do not conflict with other IP addresses.
WARNING: Use It Only For Testing
This scenario is only useful for testing and is considered as an example to get
familiar with VPN. Do not use this as a real world scenario to connect as it
can compromise your security and the safety of your IT infrastructure!
16.2.1 Configuring the VPN Server
To configure a VPN server, proceed as follows:
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Procedure 16.1: VPN Server Configuration
1 Install the package openvpn on the machine that will later become your VPN
server.
2 Open a shell, become root and create the VPN secret key:
openvpn --genkey --secret /etc/openvpn/secret.key
3 Copy the secret key to your client:
scp /etc/openvpn/secret.key [email protected]:/etc/openvpn/
4 Create the file /etc/openvpn/server.conf with the following content:
dev tun
ifconfig 192.168.1.120 192.168.2.110
secret secret.key
5 If you use a firewall, start YaST and open UDP port 1194 (Security and Users >
Firewall > Allowed Services.
6 Start the OpenVPN service as root:
rcopenvpn start
16.2.2 Configuring the VPN Client
To configure the VPN client, do the following:
Procedure 16.2: VPN Client Configuration
1 Install the package openvpn on your client VPN machine.
2 Create /etc/openvpn/client.conf with the following content:
remote IP_OF_SERVER
dev tun
ifconfig 192.168.2.110 192.168.1.120
secret secret.key
Replace the placeholder IP_OF_SERVER in the first line with either the domain
name, or the public IP address of your server.
3 If you use a firewall, start YaST and open UDP port 1194 as described in Step
5 (page 194) of Procedure 16.1, “VPN Server Configuration” (page 194).
4 Start the OpenVPN service as root:
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rcopenvpn start
16.2.3 Testing the VPN Example
After the OpenVPN is successfully started, test if the tun device is available with the
following command:
ifconfig tun0
To verify the VPN connection, use ping on both client and server to see if you can
reach each other. Ping server from client:
ping -I tun0 192.168.1.120
Ping client from server:
ping -I tun0 192.168.2.110
16.3 Setting Up Your VPN Server
Using Certificate Authority
The example shown in Section 16.2 (page 193) is useful for testing, but not for daily work. This section explains how to build a VPN server that allows more than one
connection at the same time. This is done with a public key infrastructure (PKI). A
PKI consists of a pair of public and private keys for the server and each client and a
master certificate authority (CA), which is used to sign every server and client certificate.
The general overview of this process involves the following steps explained in these
sections:
1 Section 16.3.1, “Creating Certificates” (page 195)
2 Section 16.3.2, “Configuring the Server” (page 198)
3 Section 16.3.3, “Configuring the Clients” (page 200)
16.3.1 Creating Certificates
Before a VPN connection gets established, the client must authenticate the server certificate. Conversely, the server must also authenticate the client certificate. This is
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195
called mutual authentication. To create such certificates, use the YaST CA module in
Chapter 17, Managing X.509 Certification (page 205) for more details.
To create a VPN root, server, and client CA, proceed as follows:
Procedure 16.3: Creating a VPN Server Certificate
1 Prepare a common VPN Certificate Authority (CA):
1a Start the YaST CA module.
1b Click Create Root CA.
1c Enter your CA Name and Common Name, for example VPN-Server-CA.
1d Fill out the other fields like e-mail addresses, organization, etc. and proceed
with Next.
1e Enter your password twice and proceed with Next.
1f Review the summary. YaST displays the current settings for confirmation.
Click Create. The root CA is created then appears in the overview.
2 Create a VPN server certificate:
2a Select your created root CA from Step 1 (page 196) and click Enter CA.
2b Click the Certificate tab and click Add > Add Server Certificate.
2c Enter the Common Name, something like openvpn.example.com and
proceed with Next.
2d Enter your password twice and proceed with Next.
2e Review the summary. YaST displays the current settings for confirmation.
Click Create. The VPN server certificate is created and appears in the Certificate tab.
3 Create VPN client certificates:
3a Make sure you are on the Certificate tab and click Add > Add Client Certificate.
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3b Enter the Common Name, something like client1.example.com.
3c Enter the e-mail addresses for your client, something like
[email protected], and click Add. Proceed with Next.
3d Enter your password twice and proceed with Next.
3e Review the summary. YaST displays the current settings for confirmation.
Click Create. The VPN client certificate is created and appears in the Certificate tab.
3f Repeat Step 3 (page 196) if you need more clients.
After you have successfully finished Procedure 16.3, “Creating a VPN Server
Certificate” (page 196) you have a VPN root CA, a VPN server CA, and one or
more VPN client CAs. To finish the task, proceed with the following procedure:
1 Activate the Certificate tab if you haven't done so yet.
2 Export the VPN server certificate in two formats: PEM and unencrypted key in
PEM.
2a Select your VPN server CA (openvpn.example.com in our example)
and choose Export > Export to File.
2b Mark Only the Certificate in PEM Format, enter your VPN server certificate
password and save the file to /etc/openvpn/server_crt.pem.
2c Repeat Step 2a (page 197) and Step 2b (page 197), but choose from
the save dialog window the option Only the Certificate in PEM Format to
File.
3 Export the VPN client certificates and choose an export format, PEM or PKCS12
(preferred). For each client:
3a Select your VPN client certificate (client1.example.com in our example) and choose Export > Export to File.
3b Mark Like PKCS12 and Include the CA Chain, enter your VPN client certificate key password and provide a PKCS12 password, and save the file to /
etc/openvpn/ssl/client1.pk12.
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4 Copy the files to your client (in our example, client1.example.com).
5 Export the VPN CA (in our example VPN-Server-CA):
5a Switch to the Description tab and select Export to File.
5b Select Advanced > Export to File.
5c Mark Only the Certificate in PEM Format and save the file to /etc/
openvpn/vpn_ca.pem.
If desired, the client PKCS12 file can be converted into the PEM format using this
command:
openssl pkcs12 -in client1.p12 -out client1.pem
Enter your client password to create the client1.pem file. The PEM file contains the client certificate, client key, and the CA certificate. You can split this combined file using a text editor and create three separate files. The filenames can be used
for the ca, cert, and key options in the OpenVPN configuration file (see Example 16.1, “VPN Server Configuration File” (page 198)).
16.3.2 Configuring the Server
The configuration file is mostly a summary of /usr/share/doc/pack
ages/openvpn/sample-config-files/server.conf without the comments and with some small changes concerning some paths.
Example 16.1: VPN Server Configuration File
# /etc/openvpn/server.conf
port 1194
proto udp
dev tun0
# Security
pkcs12 ssl/client1.p12
# Enable one of these options:
# tls-verify openvpn.example.com
# ns-cert-type server
dh
ssl/dh1024.pem
server 192.168.1.120 255.255.255.0
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ifconfig-pool-persist /var/run/openvpn/ipp.txt
# Privileges
user nobody
group nobody
# Other configuration
keepalive 10 120
comp-lzo
persist-key
persist-tun
status
/var/log/openvpn-status.log
log-append /var/log/openvpn.log
verb 4
The TCP/UDP port to which OpenVPN listens. You have to open up the port in
the Firewall, see Chapter 15, Masquerading and Firewalls (page 177). The standard port for VPN is 1194, so in most cases you can leave that as it is.
The protocol, either UDP or TCP.
The tun or tap device, see Section 16.1.1, “Terminology” (page 189) for the
differences.
The following lines contain the relative or absolute path to the root server CA
certificate (ca), the root CA key (cert), the private server key (key) and the
Diffie-Hellman parameters (dh). These were generated in Section 16.3.1, “Creating Certificates” (page 195).
Verifies the X509 name of a pending TLS connection (option tls-verify)
or uses a peer certificate designated as an explicit nsCertType; enable one of
the two options.
Supplies a VPN subnet. The server can be reached by 192.168.1.120.
Records a mapping of clients and its virtual IP address in the given file. Useful
when the server goes down and (after the restart) the clients get their previously
assigned IP address.
For security reasons it is a good idea to run the OpenVPN daemon with reduced
privileges. For this reason the group and user nobody is used.
Several other configurations, see comment in the original configuration from /
usr/share/doc/packages/openvpn/sample-config-files.
After this configuration, you can see log messages from your OpenVPN server under
/var/log/openvpn.log. When you have started it for the first time, it should
finish it with:
... Initialization Sequence Completed
If you do not see this message, check the log carefully. Usually OpenVPN gives you
some hints what is wrong in your configuration file.
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16.3.3 Configuring the Clients
The configuration file is mostly a summary from /usr/share/doc/pack
ages/openvpn/sample-config-files/client.conf without the comments and with some small changes concerning some paths.
Example 16.2: VPN Client Configuration File
# /etc/openvpn/client.conf
client
dev tun
proto udp
remote IP_OR_HOSTNAME 1194
resolv-retry infinite
nobind
# Privileges
user nobody
group nobody
# Try to preserve some state across restarts.
persist-key
persist-tun
# Security
ca
ssl/ca.crt
cert ssl/client.crt
key ssl/client.key
comp-lzo
We must specify that this machine is a client.
The network device. Both clients and server must use the same device.
The protocol. Use the same settings as on the server.
Replace the placeholder IP_OR_HOSTNAME with the respective hostname or
IP address of your VPN server. After the hostname the port of the server is given. You can have multiple lines of remote entries pointing to different VPN
servers. This is useful for load balancing between different VPN servers.
For security reasons it is a good idea to run the OpenVPN daemon with reduced
privileges. For this reason the group and user nobody is used.
Contains the client files. For security reasons, it is better to have a separate file
pair for each client.
Turns compression on. Use it only when the server has this parameter switched
on as well.
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16.4 Changing Nameservers in VPN
If you need to change name servers before or during your VPN session, use netconfig.
IMPORTANT: Differences between SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop
and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
The following procedure is for SUSE Linux Enterprise Servers only without
NetworkManager (with ifup). SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop installations
use NetworkManager and must install the NetworkManager-openvpn
plug-in.
Use the following procedure to change a name server:
Procedure 16.4: Changing Nameservers
1 Copy the scripts and make them executable:
cp /usr/share/doc/packages/openvpn/sample-scripts/client-netconfig.* \
/etc/openvpn/
chmod +x /etc/openvpn/client-netconfig.*
2 Add the following lines to /etc/openvpn/client.conf:
pull dhcp-options
up
/etc/openvpn/client-netconfig.up
down /etc/openvpn/client-netconfig.down
If you need to specify a ranking list of fallback services, use the
NETCONFIG_DNS_RANKING variable in /etc/sysconfig/network/con
fig. The default value is auto which resolves to:
+strongswan +openswan +racoon +openvpn -avahi
Preferred service names have the + prefix, fallback services the - prefix.
16.5 KDE- and GNOME Applets For
Clients
The following sections describe the setup of OpenVPN connections with the GNOME
and KDE desktop tools.
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16.5.1 KDE
To setup an OpenVPN connection in KDE4 that can be easily turned on or off, proceed as follows:
1 Make sure you have installed the NetworkManager-openvpn-kde4 package with all dependencies resolved.
2 Right-click on a widget of your panel and select Panel Options > Add Widgets....
3 Select Networks.
4 Right-click on the icon and choose Manage Connections.
5 Add a new VPN connection with Add > OpenVPN. A new window opens.
6 Choose the Connection Type between X.509 Certificates or X.509 With Password
depending on what you have setup with your OpenVPN server.
7 Insert the necessary files into the respective text fields. From our example configuration these are:
CA file
/etc/openvpn/ssl/ca.crt
Certificate
/etc/openvpn/ssl/
client1.crt
Key
/etc/openvpn/ssl/
client1.key
Username
The user
Password
The password for the user
8 If you have not used the KDE Wallet System, you are asked if you want to configure it. Follow the steps in the wizard. After you have finished this step, you
are reverted back to the Network Settings dialog.
9 Finish with Ok.
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10 Enable the connection with your Network manager applet.
16.5.2 GNOME
To setup a OpenVPN connection in GNOME that can be easily turned on or off, proceed as follows:
1 Make sure you have installed the package NetworkManager-openvpn-gnome and have resolved all dependencies.
2 Start the Network Connection Editor with Alt + F2 and insert nm-connection-editor into the text field. A new window appears.
3 Select the VPN tab and click Add.
4 Choose the VPN connection type, in this case OpenVPN.
5 Choose the Authentication type. Select between Certificates (TLS) or Password with
Certificates (TLS) depending on the setup of your OpenVPN server.
6 Insert the necessary files into the respective text fields. According to the example
configuration, these are:
Username
The user (only available when you
have selected Password with Certificates (TLS))
Password
The password for the user (only
available when you have selected
Password with Certificates (TLS))
User Certificate
/etc/openvpn/ssl/
client1.crt
CA Certificate
/etc/openvpn/ssl/ca.crt
Private Key
/etc/openvpn/ssl/
client1.key
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7 Finish with Apply and Close.
8 Enable the connection with your Network Manager applet.
16.6 For More Information
For more information about VPN, visit:
• http://www.openvpn.net: Homepage of VPN
• man openvpn
• /usr/share/doc/packages/openvpn/sample-config-files/: Examples of configuration files for different scenarios
• /usr/src/linux/Documentation/networking/tuntap.txt, install
the kernel-source package
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Managing X.509
Certification
An increasing number of authentication mechanisms are based on cryptographic procedures. Digital certificates that assign cryptographic keys to their owners play an important role in this context. These certificates are used for communication and can also be found, for example, on company ID cards. The generation and administration
of certificates is mostly handled by official institutions that offer this as a commercial
service. In some cases, however, it may make sense to carry out these tasks yourself.
For example, if a company does not wish to pass personal data to third parties.
17
YaST provides two modules for certification, which offer basic management functions for digital X.509 certificates. The following sections explain the basics of digital
certification and how to use YaST to create and administer certificates of this type.
17.1 The Principles of Digital
Certification
Digital certification uses cryptographic processes to encrypt and protect data from access by unauthorized people. The user data is encrypted using a second data record,
or key. The key is applied to the user data in a mathematical process, producing an altered data record in which the original content can no longer be identified. Asymmetrical encryption is now in general use (public key method). Keys always occur in pairs:
Private Key
The private key must be kept safely by the key owner. Accidental publication of
the private key compromises the key pair and renders it useless.
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Public Key
The key owner circulates the public key for use by third parties.
17.1.1 Key Authenticity
Because the public key process is in widespread use, there are many public keys in
circulation. Successful use of this system requires that every user be sure that a public
key actually belongs to the assumed owner. The assignment of users to public keys is
confirmed by trustworthy organizations with public key certificates. Such certificates
contain the name of the key owner, the corresponding public key, and the electronic
signature of the person issuing the certificate.
Trustworthy organizations that issue and sign public key certificates are usually part
of a certification infrastructure that is also responsible for the other aspects of certificate management, such as publication, withdrawal, and renewal of certificates. An infrastructure of this kind is generally referred to as a public key infrastructure or PKI.
One familiar PKI is the OpenPGP standard in which users publish their certificates
themselves without central authorization points. These certificates become trustworthy when signed by other parties in the “web of trust.”
The X.509 Public Key Infrastructure (PKIX) is an alternative model defined by the
IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) that serves as a model for almost all publicly-used PKIs today. In this model, authentication is made by certificate authorities
(CA) in a hierarchical tree structure. The root of the tree is the root CA, which certifies all sub-CAs. The lowest level of sub-CAs issue user certificates. The user certificates are trustworthy by certification that can be traced to the root CA.
The security of such a PKI depends on the trustworthiness of the CA certificates. To
make certification practices clear to PKI customers, the PKI operator defines a certification practice statement (CPS) that defines the procedures for certificate management. This should ensure that the PKI only issues trustworthy certificates.
17.1.2 X.509 Certificates
An X.509 certificate is a data structure with several fixed fields and, optionally, additional extensions. The fixed fields mainly contain the name of the key owner, the public key, and the data relating to the issuing CA (name and signature). For security reasons, a certificate should only have a limited period of validity, so a field is also pro206
Security Guide
vided for this date. The CA guarantees the validity of the certificate in the specified
period. The CPS usually requires the PKI (the issuing CA) to create and distribute a
new certificate before expiration.
The extensions can contain any additional information. An application is only required to be able to evaluate an extension if it is identified as critical. If an application
does not recognize a critical extension, it must reject the certificate. Some extensions
are only useful for a specific application, such as signature or encryption.
Table 17.1 shows the fields of a basic X.509 certificate in version 3.
Table 17.1: X.509v3 Certificate
Field
Content
Version
The version of the certificate, for example, v3
Serial Number
Unique certificate ID (an integer)
Signature
The ID of the algorithm used to sign
the certificate
Issuer
Unique name (DN) of the issuing authority (CA)
Validity
Period of validity
Subject
Unique name (DN) of the owner
Subject Public Key Info
Public key of the owner and the ID of
the algorithm
Issuer Unique ID
Unique ID of the issuing CA (optional)
Subject Unique ID
Unique ID of the owner (optional)
Extensions
Optional additional information, such
as “KeyUsage” or “BasicConstraints”
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17.1.3 Blocking X.509 Certificates
If a certificate becomes untrustworthy before it has expired, it must be blocked immediately. This can become necessary if, for example, the private key has accidentally been made public. Blocking certificates is especially important if the private key
belongs to a CA rather than a user certificate. In this case, all user certificates issued
by the relevant CA must be blocked immediately. If a certificate is blocked, the PKI
(the responsible CA) must make this information available to all those involved using
a certificate revocation list (CRL).
These lists are supplied by the CA to public CRL distribution points (CDPs) at regular intervals. The CDP can optionally be named as an extension in the certificate, so
a checker can fetch a current CRL for validation purposes. One way to do this is the
online certificate status protocol (OCSP). The authenticity of the CRLs is ensured with
the signature of the issuing CA. Table 17.2 shows the basic parts of a X.509 CRL.
Table 17.2: X.509 Certificate Revocation List (CRL)
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Field
Content
Version
The version of the CRL, such as v2
Signature
The ID of the algorithm used to sign
the CRL
Issuer
Unique name (DN) of the publisher
of the CRL (usually the issuing CA)
This Update
Time of publication (date, time) of
this CRL
Next Update
Time of publication (date, time) of
the next CRL
List of revoked certificates
Every entry contains the serial number of the certificate, the time of revocation, and optional extensions
(CRL entry extensions)
Extensions
Optional CRL extensions
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17.1.4 Repository for Certificates and
CRLs
The certificates and CRLs for a CA must be made publicly accessible using a repository. Because the signature protects the certificates and CRLs from being forged, the
repository itself does not need to be secured in a special way. Instead, it tries to grant
the simplest and fastest access possible. For this reason, certificates are often provided on an LDAP or HTTP server. Find explanations about LDAP in Chapter 4, LDAP
—A Directory Service (page 39). Chapter 30, The Apache HTTP Server (↑Administration Guide) contains information about the HTTP server.
17.1.5 Proprietary PKI
YaST contains modules for the basic management of X.509 certificates. This mainly involves the creation of CAs, sub-CAs, and their certificates. The services of a PKI
go far beyond simply creating and distributing certificates and CRLs. The operation
of a PKI requires a well-conceived administrative infrastructure allowing continuous
update of certificates and CRLs. This infrastructure is provided by commercial PKI
products and can also be partly automated. YaST provides tools for creating and distributing CAs and certificates, but cannot currently offer this background infrastructure. To set up a small PKI, you can use the available YaST modules. However, you
should use commercial products to set up an “official” or commercial PKI.
17.2 YaST Modules for CA
Management
YaST provides two modules for basic CA management. The primary management
tasks with these modules are explained here.
17.2.1 Creating a Root CA
The first step when setting up a PKI is to create a root CA. Do the following:
1 Start YaST and go to Security and Users > CA Management.
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2 Click Create Root CA.
3 Enter the basic data for the CA in the first dialog, shown in Figure 17.1. The text
fields have the following meanings:
Figure 17.1: YaST CA Module—Basic Data for a Root CA
CA Name
Enter the technical name of the CA. Directory names, among other things, are
derived from this name, which is why only the characters listed in the help can
be used. The technical name is also displayed in the overview when the module
is started.
Common Name
Enter the name for use in referring to the CA.
E-Mail Addresses
Several e-mail addresses can be entered that can be seen by the CA user. This
can be helpful for inquiries.
Country
Select the country where the CA is operated.
Organisation, Organisational Unit, Locality, State
Optional values
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Proceed with Next.
4 Enter a password in the second dialog. This password is always required when using the CA—when creating a sub-CA or generating certificates. The text fields
have the following meaning:
Key Length
Key Length contains a meaningful default and does not generally need to be
changed unless an application cannot deal with this key length. The higher the
number the more secure your password is.
Valid Period (days)
The Valid Period in the case of a CA defaults to 3650 days (roughly ten years).
This long period makes sense because the replacement of a deleted CA involves an enormous administrative effort.
Clicking Advanced Options opens a dialog for setting different attributes from the X.509 extensions (Figure 17.4, “YaST CA Module—Extended
Settings” (page 216)). These values have rational default settings and should only be changed if you are really sure of what you are doing. Proceed with Next.
5 Review the summary. YaST displays the current settings for confirmation. Click
Create. The root CA is created then appears in the overview.
TIP
In general, it is best not to allow user certificates to be issued by the root CA.
It is better to create at least one sub-CA and create the user certificates from
there. This has the advantage that the root CA can be kept isolated and secure, for example, on an isolated computer on secure premises. This makes
it very difficult to attack the root CA.
17.2.2 Changing Password
If you need to change your password for your CA, proceed as follows:
1 Start YaST and open the CA module.
2 Select the required root CA and click Enter CA.
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3 Enter the password if you entered a CA the first time. YaST displays the CA key
information in the Description tab (see Figure 17.2).
4 Click Advanced and select Change CA Password. A dialog box opens.
5 Enter the old and the new password.
6 Finish with OK
17.2.3 Creating or Revoking a Sub-CA
A sub-CA is created in exactly the same way as a root CA.
NOTE
The validity period for a sub-CA must be fully within the validity period of the
“parent” CA. A sub-CA is always created after the “parent” CA, therefore, the
default value leads to an error message. To avoid this, enter a permissible
value for the period of validity.
Do the following:
1 Start YaST and open the CA module.
2 Select the required root CA and click Enter CA.
3 Enter the password if you are entering a CA for the first time. YaST displays the
CA key information in the tab Description (see Figure 17.2).
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Figure 17.2: YaST CA Module—Using a CA
4 Click Advanced and select Create SubCA. This opens the same dialog as for creating a root CA.
5 Proceed as described in Section 17.2.1, “Creating a Root CA” (page 209).
It is possible to use one password for all your CAs. Enable Use CA Password as
Certificate Password to give your sub-CAs the same password as your root CA.
This helps to reduce the amount of passwords for your CAs.
NOTE: Check your Valid Period
Take into account that the valid period must be lower than the valid period
in the root CA.
6 Select the Certificates tab. Reset compromised or otherwise unwanted sub-CAs
here, using Revoke. Revocation alone is not enough to deactivate a sub-CA. You
must also publish revoked sub-CAs in a CRL. The creation of CRLs is described in
Section 17.2.6, “Creating Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs)” (page 217).
7 Finish with OK
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17.2.4 Creating or Revoking User
Certificates
Creating client and server certificates is very similar to creating CAs in Section 17.2.1, “Creating a Root CA” (page 209). The same principles apply here. In
certificates intended for e-mail signature, the e-mail address of the sender (the private
key owner) should be contained in the certificate to enable the e-mail program to assign the correct certificate. For certificate assignment during encryption, it is necessary for the e-mail address of the recipient (the public key owner) to be included in
the certificate. In the case of server and client certificates, the hostname of the server must be entered in the Common Name field. The default validity period for certificates is 365 days.
To create client and server certificates, do the following:
1 Start YaST and open the CA module.
2 Select the required root CA and click Enter CA.
3 Enter the password if you are entering a CA for the first time. YaST displays the
CA key information in the Description tab.
4 Click Certificates (see Figure 17.3).
Figure 17.3: Certificates of a CA
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5 Click Add > Add Server Certificate and create a server certificate.
6 Click Add > Add Client Certificate and create a client certificate. Do not forget to
enter an e-mail address.
7 Finish with OK
To revoke compromised or otherwise unwanted certificates, do the following:
1 Start YaST and open the CA module.
2 Select the required root CA and click Enter CA.
3 Enter the password if you are entering a CA for the first time. YaST displays the
CA key information in the Description tab.
4 Click Certificates (see Section 17.2.3, “Creating or Revoking a SubCA” (page 212)).
5 Select the certificate to revoke and click Revoke.
6 Choose a reason to revoke this certificate.
7 Finish with OK.
NOTE
Revocation alone is not enough to deactivate a certificate. Also publish revoked certificates in a CRL. Section 17.2.6, “Creating Certificate Revocation
Lists (CRLs)” (page 217) explains how to create CRLs. Revoked certificates can be completely removed after publication in a CRL with Delete.
17.2.5 Changing Default Values
The previous sections explained how to create sub-CAs, client certificates, and server
certificates. Special settings are used in the extensions of the X.509 certificate. These
settings have been given rational defaults for every certificate type and do not normally need to be changed. However, it may be that you have special requirements for
Managing X.509 Certification
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these extensions. In this case, it may make sense to adjust the defaults. Otherwise,
start from scratch every time you create a certificate.
1 Start YaST and open the CA module.
2 Enter the required root CA, as described in Section 17.2.3, “Creating or Revoking
a Sub-CA” (page 212).
3 Click Advanced > Edit Defaults.
4 Choose the type the settings to change. The dialog for changing the defaults, shown
in Figure 17.4, “YaST CA Module—Extended Settings” (page 216), then opens.
Figure 17.4: YaST CA Module—Extended Settings
5 Change the associated value on the right side and set or delete the critical setting
with critical.
6 Click Next to see a short summary.
7 Finish your changes with Save.
NOTE
All changes to the defaults only affect objects created after this point. Already-existing CAs and certificates remain unchanged.
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17.2.6 Creating Certificate Revocation
Lists (CRLs)
If compromised or otherwise unwanted certificates need to be excluded from further
use, they must first be revoked. The procedure for this is explained in Section 17.2.3,
“Creating or Revoking a Sub-CA” (page 212) (for sub-CAs) and Section 17.2.4,
“Creating or Revoking User Certificates” (page 214) (for user certificates). After
this, a CRL must be created and published with this information.
The system maintains only one CRL for each CA. To create or update this CRL, do
the following:
1 Start YaST and open the CA module.
2 Enter the required CA, as described in Section 17.2.3, “Creating or Revoking a
Sub-CA” (page 212).
3 Click CRL. The dialog that opens displays a summary of the last CRL of this CA.
4 Create a new CRL with Generate CRL if you have revoked new sub-CAs or certificates since its creation.
5 Specify the period of validity for the new CRL (default: 30 days).
6 Click OK to create and display the CRL. Afterwards, you must publish this CRL.
NOTE
Applications that evaluate CRLs reject every certificate if the CRL is not
available or has expired. As a PKI provider, it is your duty always to create
and publish a new CRL before the current CRL expires (period of validity).
YaST does not provide a function for automating this procedure.
17.2.7 Exporting CA Objects to LDAP
The executing computer should be configured with the YaST LDAP client for LDAP
export. This provides LDAP server information at runtime that can be used when
completing dialog fields. Otherwise (although export may be possible), all LDAP data
Managing X.509 Certification
217
must be entered manually. You must always enter several passwords (see Table 17.3,
“Passwords during LDAP Export” (page 218)).
Table 17.3: Passwords during LDAP Export
Password
Meaning
LDAP Password
Authorizes the user to make entries in
the LDAP tree.
Certificate Password
Authorizes the user to export the certificate.
New Certificate Password
The PKCS12 format is used during
LDAP export. This format forces the
assignment of a new password for the
exported certificate.
Certificates, CAs, and CRLs can be exported to LDAP.
Exporting a CA to LDAP
To export a CA, enter the CA as described in Section 17.2.3, “Creating or Revoking a Sub-CA” (page 212). Select Extended > Export to LDAP in the subsequent dialog, which opens the dialog for entering LDAP data. If your system has
been configured with the YaST LDAP client, the fields are already partly completed. Otherwise, enter all the data manually. Entries are made in LDAP in a
separate tree with the attribute “caCertificate”.
Exporting a Certificate to LDAP
Enter the CA containing the certificate to export then select Certificates. Select
the required certificate from the certificate list in the upper part of the dialog
and select Export > Export to LDAP. The LDAP data is entered here in the same
way as for CAs. The certificate is saved with the corresponding user object in
the LDAP tree with the attributes “userCertificate” (PEM format) and “userPKCS12” (PKCS12 format).
Exporting a CRL to LDAP
Enter the CA containing the CRL to export and select CRL. If desired, create a
new CRL and click Export. The dialog that opens displays the export parameters.
You can export the CRL for this CA either once or in periodical time intervals.
Activate the export by selecting Export to LDAP and enter the respective LDAP
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Security Guide
data. To do this at regular intervals, select the Repeated Recreation and Export radio button and change the interval, if appropriate.
17.2.8 Exporting CA Objects as a File
If you have set up a repository on the computer for administering CAs, you can use
this option to create the CA objects directly as a file at the correct location. Different
output formats are available, such as PEM, DER, and PKCS12. In the case of PEM, it
is also possible to choose whether a certificate should be exported with or without key
and whether the key should be encrypted. In the case of PKCS12, it is also possible to
export the certification path.
Export a file in the same way for certificates, CAs as with LDAP, described in Section 17.2.7, “Exporting CA Objects to LDAP” (page 217), except you should select
Export as File instead of Export to LDAP. This then takes you to a dialog for selecting
the required output format and entering the password and filename. The certificate is
stored at the required location after clicking OK.
For CRLs click Export, select Export to file, choose the export format (PEM or DER)
and enter the path. Proceed with OK to save it to the respective location.
TIP
You can select any storage location in the file system. This option can also
be used to save CA objects on a transport medium, such as a USB stick. The
/media directory generally holds any type of drive except the hard drive of
your system.
17.2.9 Importing Common Server
Certificates
If you have exported a server certificate with YaST to your media on an isolated CA
management computer, you can import this certificate on a server as a common server
certificate. Do this during installation or at a later point with YaST.
NOTE
You need one of the PKCS12 formats to import your certificate successfully.
Managing X.509 Certification
219
The general server certificate is stored in /etc/ssl/servercerts and can be
used there by any CA-supported service. When this certificate expires, it can easily be
replaced using the same mechanisms. To get things functioning with the replaced certificate, restart the participating services.
TIP
If you select Import here, you can select the source in the file system. This
option can also be used to import certificates from a transport medium, such
as a USB stick.
To import a common server certificate, do the following:
1 Start YaST and open Common Server Certificate under Security and Users
2 View the data for the current certificate in the description field after YaST has
been started.
3 Select Import and the certificate file.
4 Enter the password and click Next. The certificate is imported then displayed in the
description field.
5 Close YaST with Finish.
17.3 For More Information
Detailed information about X.509 certificates, refer to http://www.ietf.org/
html.charters/pkix-charter.html.
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Part IV. Confining
Privileges with AppArmor
Introducing AppArmor
Many security vulnerabilities result from bugs in trusted programs. A trusted program
runs with privileges that attackers would like to have. The program fails to keep that
trust if there is a bug in the program that allows the attacker to acquire said privilege.
18
AppArmor® is an application security solution designed specifically to apply privilege confinement to suspect programs. AppArmor allows the administrator to specify the domain of activities the program can perform by developing a security profile
for that application (a listing of files that the program may access and the operations
the program may perform). AppArmor secures applications by enforcing good application behavior without relying on attack signatures, so it can prevent attacks even if
previously unknown vulnerabilities are being exploited.
AppArmor consists of:
• A library of AppArmor profiles for common Linux* applications, describing what
files the program needs to access.
• A library of AppArmor profile foundation classes (profile building blocks) needed
for common application activities, such as DNS lookup and user authentication.
• A tool suite for developing and enhancing AppArmor profiles, so that you can
change the existing profiles to suit your needs and create new profiles for your own
local and custom applications.
• Several specially modified applications that are AppArmor enabled to provide enhanced security in the form of unique subprocess confinement (including Apache
and Tomcat).
Introducing AppArmor
223
• The AppArmor–loadable kernel module and associated control scripts to enforce
AppArmor policies on your SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server system.
18.1 Background Information on
AppArmor Profiling
For more information about the science and security of AppArmor, refer to the following papers:
SubDomain: Parsimonious Server Security by Crispin Cowan, Steve Beattie, Greg
Kroah-Hartman, Calton Pu, Perry Wagle, and Virgil Gligor
Describes the initial design and implementation of AppArmor. Published in the
proceedings of the USENIX LISA Conference, December 2000, New Orleans,
LA. This paper is now out of date, describing syntax and features that are different from the current AppArmor product. This paper should be used only for
background, and not for technical documentation.
Defcon Capture the Flag: Defending Vulnerable Code from Intense Attack by Crispin
Cowan, Seth Arnold, Steve Beattie, Chris Wright, and John Viega
A good guide to strategic and tactical use of AppArmor to solve severe security problems in a very short period of time. Published in the Proceedings of the
DARPA Information Survivability Conference and Expo (DISCEX III), April
2003, Washington, DC.
AppArmor for Geeks by Seth Arnold
This document tries to convey a better understanding of the technical details of AppArmor. It is available at http://en.opensuse.org/
SDB:AppArmor_geeks.
AppArmor Technical Documentation by Andreas Gruenbacher and Seth Arnold
This document discusses the concept and design of AppArmor from a very technical point of view. It is available at http://forgeftp.novell.com/ap
parmor/LKML_Submission-June-07/techdoc.html.
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19
Getting Started
Prepare a successful deployment of AppArmor on your system by carefully considering the following items:
1 Determine the applications to profile. Read more on this in Section 19.3, “Choosing the Applications to Profile” (page 227).
2 Build the needed profiles as roughly outlined in Section 19.4, “Building and Modifying Profiles” (page 228). Check the results and adjust the profiles when necessary.
3 Keep track of what is happening on your system by running AppArmor reports and
dealing with security events. Refer to Section 19.5, “Configuring AppArmor Event
Notification and Reports” (page 230).
4 Update your profiles whenever your environment changes or you need to react to
security events logged by AppArmor's reporting tool. Refer to Section 19.6, “Updating Your Profiles” (page 231).
19.1 Installing AppArmor
AppArmor is installed and running on any installation of SUSE® Linux Enterprise
Server by default, regardless of what patterns are installed. The packages listed below
are needed for a fully-functional instance of AppArmor
• apparmor-docs
Getting Started
225
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
apparmor-parser
apparmor-profiles
apparmor-utils
audit
libapparmor1
perl-libapparmor
yast2-apparmor
19.2 Enabling and Disabling
AppArmor
AppArmor is configured to run by default on any fresh installation of SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server. There are two ways of toggling the status of AppArmor:
Using YaST System Services (Runlevel)
Disable or enable AppArmor by removing or adding its boot script to the sequence of scripts executed on system boot. Status changes are applied on reboot.
Using AppArmor Control Panel
Toggle the status of AppArmor in a running system by switching it off or on using the YaST AppArmor Control Panel. Changes made here are applied instantaneously. The Control Panel triggers a stop or start event for AppArmor and removes or adds its boot script in the system's boot sequence.
To disable AppArmor permanently (by removing it from the sequence of scripts executed on system boot) proceed as follows:
1 Start YaST.
2 Select System > System Services (Runlevel).
3 Select Expert Mode.
4 Select boot.apparmor and click Set/Reset > Disable the service.
5 Exit the YaST Runlevel tool with Finish.
AppArmor will not be initialized on reboot, and stays inactive until you reenable it.
Reenabling a service using the YaST Runlevel tool is similar to disabling it.
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Toggle the status of AppArmor in a running system by using the AppArmor Control
Panel. These changes take effect as soon as you apply them and survive a reboot of
the system. To toggle AppArmor's status, proceed as follows:
1 Start YaST.
2 Select AppArmor > AppArmor Control Panel.
3 Select Enable AppArmor. To disable AppArmor, uncheck this option.
4 Exit the AppArmor Control Panel with Done.
19.3 Choosing the Applications to
Profile
You only need to protect the programs that are exposed to attacks in your particular
setup, so only use profiles for those applications you actually run. Use the following
list to determine the most likely candidates:
Network Agents
Web Applications
Cron Jobs
To find out which processes are currently running with open network ports and might
need a profile to confine them, run aa-unconfined as root.
Example 19.1: Output of aa-unconfined
19848
19887
19947
29205
/usr/sbin/cupsd not confined
/usr/sbin/sshd not confined
/usr/lib/postfix/master not confined
/usr/sbin/sshd confined by '/usr/sbin/sshd (enforce)'
Each of the processes in the above example labeled not confined might need a
custom profile to confine it. Those labeled confined by are already protected by
AppArmor.
TIP: For More Information
For more information about choosing the the right applications to profile, refer
to Section 20.2, “Determining Programs to Immunize” (page 236).
Getting Started
227
19.4 Building and Modifying
Profiles
AppArmor on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server ships with a pre-configured set of profiles for the most important applications. In addition, you can use AppArmor to create
your own profiles for any application you want.
There are two ways of managing profiles. One is to use the graphical front-end provided by the YaST AppArmor modules and the other is to use the command line tools
provided by the AppArmor suite itself. Both methods basically work the same way.
For each application, perform the following steps to create a profile:
1 As root, let AppArmor create a rough outline of the application's profile by running aa-genprof programname
or
Outline the basic profile by running YaST > AppArmor > Add Profile Wizard and
specifying the complete path to the application you want to profile.
A basic profile is outlined and AppArmor is put into learning mode, which means
that it logs any activity of the program you are executing, but does not yet restrict
it.
2 Run the full range of the application's actions to let AppArmor get a very specific
picture of its activities.
3 Let AppArmor analyze the log files generated in Step 2 (page 228) by typing S
in aa-genprof.
or
Analyze the logs by clicking Scan System Log for AppArmor Events in the Add Profile Wizard and following the instructions given in the wizard until the profile is
completed.
AppArmor scans the logs it recorded during the application's run and asks you to
set the access rights for each event that was logged. Either set them for each file or
use globbing.
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Security Guide
4 Depending on the complexity of your application, it might be necessary to repeat
Step 2 (page 228) and Step 3 (page 228). Confine the application, exercise
it under the confined conditions, and process any new log events. To properly confine the full range of an application's capabilities, you might be required to repeat
this procedure often.
5 Once all access permissions are set, your profile is set to enforce mode. The profile
is applied and AppArmor restricts the application according to the profile just created.
If you started aa-genprof on an application that had an existing profile that was
in complain mode, this profile remains in learning mode upon exit of this learning
cycle. For more information about changing the mode of a profile, refer to Section 24.6.3.2, “aa-complain—Entering Complain or Learning Mode” (page 301)
and Section 24.6.3.3, “aa-enforce—Entering Enforce Mode” (page 302).
Test your profile settings by performing every task you need with the application you
just confined. Normally, the confined program runs smoothly and you do not notice
AppArmor activities at all. However, if you notice certain misbehavior with your application, check the system logs and see if AppArmor is too tightly confining your
application. Depending on the log mechanism used on your system, there are several
places to look for AppArmor log entries:
/var/log/audit/audit.log
/var/log/messages
dmesg
To adjust the profile, analyze the log messages relating to this application again as
described in Step 3 (page 228). Determine the access rights or restrictions when
prompted.
TIP: For More Information
For more information about profile building and modification, refer to Chapter 21, Profile Components and Syntax (page 243), Chapter 23, Building
and Managing Profiles with YaST (page 271), and Chapter 24, Building
Profiles from the Command Line (page 293).
Getting Started
229
19.5 Configuring AppArmor Event
Notification and Reports
Set up event notification in AppArmor so you can review security events. Event Notification is an AppArmor feature that informs a specified e-mail recipient when systemic AppArmor activity occurs under the chosen severity level. This feature is currently available in the YaST interface.
To set up event notification in YaST, proceed as follows:
1 Make sure that a mail server is running on your system to deliver the event notifications.
2 Start YaST. Then select AppArmor > AppArmor Control Panel. In Security Event
Notification, select Configure.
3 For each record type (Terse, Summary, and Verbose), set a report frequency, enter the e-mail address that should receive the reports, and determine the severity of
events to log. To include unknown events in the event reports, check Include Unknown Severity Events.
NOTE: Selecting Events to Log
Unless you are familiar with AppArmor's event categorization, choose to
be notified about events for all security levels.
4 Leave this dialog with OK > Done to apply your settings.
Using AppArmor reports, you can read important AppArmor security events reported
in the log files without manually sifting through the cumbersome messages only useful
to the aa-logprof tool. You can decrease the size of the report by filtering by date
range or program name.
To configure the AppArmor reports, proceed as follows:
1 Start YaST. Select AppArmor > AppArmor Reports.
2 Select the type of report to examine or configure from Executive Security Summary,
Applications Audit, and Security Incident Report.
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3 Edit the report generation frequency, e-mail address, export format, and location
of the reports by selecting Edit and providing the requested data.
4 To run a report of the selected type, click Run Now.
5 Browse through the archived reports of a given type by selecting View Archive and
specifying the report type.
or
Delete unneeded reports or add new ones.
TIP: For More Information
For more information about configuring event notification in AppArmor, refer to Section 27.2, “Configuring Security Event Notification” (page 334).
Find more information about report configuration in Section 27.3, “Configuring Reports” (page 337).
19.6 Updating Your Profiles
Software and system configurations change over time. As a result, your profile setup for AppArmor might need some fine-tuning from time to time. AppArmor checks
your system log for policy violations or other AppArmor events and lets you adjust
your profile set accordingly. Any application behavior that is outside of any profile
definition can also be addressed using the Update Profile Wizard.
To update your profile set, proceed as follows:
1 Start YaST and choose AppArmor > Update Profile Wizard.
2 Adjust access or execute rights to any resource or for any executable that has been
logged when prompted.
3 Leave YaST after you have answered all questions. Your changes are applied to the
respective profiles.
TIP: For More Information
For more information about updating your profiles from the system logs, refer
to Section 23.5, “Updating Profiles from Log Entries” (page 287).
Getting Started
231
20
Immunizing Programs
Effective hardening of a computer system requires minimizing the number of programs that mediate privilege, then securing the programs as much as possible. With
AppArmor, you only need to profile the programs that are exposed to attack in your
environment, which drastically reduces the amount of work required to harden your
computer. AppArmor profiles enforce policies to make sure that programs do what
they are supposed to do, but nothing else.
AppArmor® provides immunization technologies that protect applications from the
inherent vulnerabilities they possess. After installing AppArmor, setting up AppArmor profiles, and rebooting the computer, your system becomes immunized because it
begins to enforce the AppArmor security policies. Protecting programs with AppArmor is referred to as immunizing.
Administrators need only concern themselves with the applications that are vulnerable to attacks, and generate profiles for these. Hardening a system thus comes down to
building and maintaining the AppArmor profile set and monitoring any policy violations or exceptions logged by AppArmor's reporting facility.
Users should not notice AppArmor at all. It runs “behind the scenes” and does not require any user interaction. Performance is not noticeably affected by AppArmor. If
some activity of the application is not covered by an AppArmor profile or if some activity of the application is prevented by AppArmor, the administrator needs to adjust
the profile of this application to cover this kind of behavior.
AppArmor sets up a collection of default application profiles to protect standard Linux services. To protect other applications, use the AppArmor tools to
Immunizing Programs
233
create profiles for the applications that you want protected. This chapter introduces the philosophy of immunizing programs. Proceed to Chapter 21, Profile
Components and Syntax (page 243), Chapter 23, Building and Managing Profiles with YaST (page 271), or Chapter 24, Building Profiles from the Command
Line (page 293) if you are ready to build and manage AppArmor profiles.
AppArmor provides streamlined access control for network services by specifying
which files each program is allowed to read, write, and execute, and which type of
network it is allowed to access. This ensures that each program does what it is supposed to do, and nothing else. AppArmor quarantines programs to protect the rest of
the system from being damaged by a compromised process.
AppArmor is a host intrusion prevention or mandatory access control scheme. Previously, access control schemes were centered around users because they were built
for large timeshare systems. Alternatively, modern network servers largely do not permit users to log in, but instead provide a variety of network services for users (such
as Web, mail, file, and print servers). AppArmor controls the access given to network
services and other programs to prevent weaknesses from being exploited.
TIP: Background Information for AppArmor
To get a more in-depth overview of AppArmor and the overall concept
behind it, refer to Section 18.1, “Background Information on AppArmor
Profiling” (page 224).
20.1 Introducing the AppArmor
Framework
This section provides a very basic understanding of what is happening “behind the
scenes” (and under the hood of the YaST interface) when you run AppArmor.
An AppArmor profile is a plain text file containing path entries and access permissions. See Section 21.1, “Breaking a AppArmor Profile into Its Parts” (page 244)
for a detailed reference profile. The directives contained in this text file are then enforced by the AppArmor routines to quarantine the process or program.
The following tools interact in the building and enforcement of AppArmor profiles
and policies:
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Security Guide
aa-unconfined / unconfined
aa-unconfined detects any application running on your system that listens for network connections and is not protected by an AppArmor profile. Refer to Section 24.6.3.8, “aa-unconfined—Identifying Unprotected
Processes” (page 316) for detailed information about this tool.
aa-autodep / autodep
aa-autodep creates a basic framework of a profile that needs to be fleshed out
before it is put to use in production. The resulting profile is loaded and put into
complain mode, reporting any behavior of the application that is not (yet) covered
by AppArmor rules. Refer to Section 24.6.3.1, “aa-autodep—Creating Approximate Profiles” (page 300) for detailed information about this tool.
aa-genprof / genprof
aa-genprof generates a basic profile and asks you to refine this profile by executing the application and generating log events that need to be taken care of by
AppArmor policies. You are guided through a series of questions to deal with the
log events that have been triggered during the application's execution. After the
profile has been generated, it is loaded and put into enforce mode. Refer to Section 24.6.3.4, “aa-genprof—Generating Profiles” (page 303) for detailed information about this tool.
aa-logprof / logprof
aa-logprof interactively scans and reviews the log entries generated by an application that is confined by an AppArmor profile in complain mode. It assists
you in generating new entries in the profile concerned. Refer to Section 24.6.3.5,
“aa-logprof—Scanning the System Log” (page 311) for detailed information
about this tool.
aa-complain / complain
aa-complain toggles the mode of an AppArmor profile from enforce to complain. Exceptions to rules set in a profile are logged, but the profile is not enforced. Refer to Section 24.6.3.2, “aa-complain—Entering Complain or Learning
Mode” (page 301) for detailed information about this tool.
aa-enforce / enforce
aa-enforce toggles the mode of an AppArmor profile from complain to enforce. Exceptions to rules set in a profile are logged, but not permitted—the
profile is enforced. Refer to Section 24.6.3.3, “aa-enforce—Entering Enforce
Mode” (page 302) for detailed information about this tool.
Immunizing Programs
235
Once a profile has been built and is loaded, there are two ways in which it can get
processed:
aa-complain / complain
In complain mode, violations of AppArmor profile rules, such as the profiled
program accessing files not permitted by the profile, are detected. The violations
are permitted, but also logged. To improve the profile, turn complain mode on,
run the program through a suite of tests to generate log events that characterize
the program's access needs, then postprocess the log with the AppArmor tools
(YaST or aa-logprof) to transform log events into improved profiles.
aa-enforce / enforce
In enforce mode, violations of AppArmor profile rules, such as the profiled program accessing files not permitted by the profile, are detected. The violations are
logged and not permitted. The default is for enforce mode to be enabled. To log
the violations only, but still permit them, use complain mode. Enforce toggles
with complain mode.
20.2 Determining Programs to
Immunize
Now that you have familiarized yourself with AppArmor, start selecting the applications for which to build profiles. Programs that need profiling are those that mediate
privilege. The following programs have access to resources that the person using the
program does not have, so they grant the privilege to the user when used:
cron Jobs
Programs that are run periodically by cron. Such programs read input from a variety of sources and can run with special privileges, sometimes with as much as
root privilege. For example, cron can run /usr/sbin/logrotate daily
to rotate, compress, or even mail system logs. For instructions for finding these
types of programs, refer to Section 20.3, “Immunizing cron Jobs” (page 237).
Web Applications
Programs that can be invoked through a Web browser, including CGI Perl
scripts, PHP pages, and more complex Web applications. For instructions for
finding these types of programs, refer to Section 20.4.1, “Immunizing Web
Applications” (page 239).
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Security Guide
Network Agents
Programs (servers and clients) that have open network ports. User clients, such
as mail clients and Web browsers mediate privilege. These programs run with
the privilege to write to the user's home directory and they process input from
potentially hostile remote sources, such as hostile Web sites and e-mailed malicious code. For instructions for finding these types of programs, refer to Section 20.4.2, “Immunizing Network Agents” (page 241).
Conversely, unprivileged programs do not need to be profiled. For instance, a shell
script might invoke the cp program to copy a file. Because cp does not have its own
profile, it inherits the profile of the parent shell script, so can copy any files that the
parent shell script's profile can read and write.
20.3 Immunizing cron Jobs
To find programs that are run by cron, inspect your local cron configuration. Unfortunately, cron configuration is rather complex, so there are numerous files to inspect.
Periodic cron jobs are run from these files:
/etc/crontab
/etc/cron.d/*
/etc/cron.daily/*
/etc/cron.hourly/*
/etc/cron.monthly/*
/etc/cron.weekly/*
For root's cron jobs, edit the tasks with crontab -e and list root's cron tasks
with crontab -l. You must be root for these to work.
Once you find these programs, you can use the Add Profile Wizard to create profiles
for them. Refer to Section 23.1, “Adding a Profile Using the Wizard” (page 273).
20.4 Immunizing Network
Applications
An automated method for finding network server daemons that should be profiled
is to use the aa-unconfined tool. You can also simply view a report of this
information in the YaST module (refer to Section 27.3.1.1, “Application Audit
Report” (page 343) for instructions).
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237
The aa-unconfined tool uses the command netstat -nlp to inspect your
open ports from inside your computer, detect the programs associated with those
ports, and inspect the set of AppArmor profiles that you have loaded. aa-unconfined then reports these programs along with the AppArmor profile associated with
each program, or reports “none” (if the program is not confined).
NOTE
If you create a new profile, you must restart the program that has been profiled to have it be effectively confined by AppArmor.
Below is a sample aa-unconfined output:
2325 /sbin/portmap not confined
3702 /usr/sbin/sshd confined
by '/usr/sbin/sshd (enforce)'
4040 /usr/sbin/ntpd confined by '/usr/sbin/ntpd (enforce)'
4373 /usr/lib/postfix/master confined by '/usr/lib/postfix/master
(enforce)'
4505 /usr/sbin/httpd2-prefork confined by '/usr/sbin/httpd2-prefork
(enforce)'
5274 /sbin/dhcpcd not confined
5592 /usr/bin/ssh not confined
7146 /usr/sbin/cupsd confined by '/usr/sbin/cupsd (complain)'
The first portion is a number. This number is the process ID number (PID) of
the listening program.
The second portion is a string that represents the absolute path of the listening
program
The final portion indicates the profile confining the program, if any.
NOTE
aa-unconfined requires root privileges and should not be run from a
shell that is confined by an AppArmor profile.
aa-unconfined does not distinguish between one network interface and another,
so it reports all unconfined processes, even those that might be listening to an internal
LAN interface.
Finding user network client applications is dependent on your user preferences. The
aa-unconfined tool detects and reports network ports opened by client applica238
Security Guide
tions, but only those client applications that are running at the time the aa-unconfined analysis is performed. This is a problem because network services tend to be
running all the time, while network client applications tend only to be running when
the user is interested in them.
Applying AppArmor profiles to user network client applications is also dependent on
user preferences. Therefore, we leave the profiling of user network client applications
as an exercise for the user.
To aggressively confine desktop applications, the aa-unconfined command supports a paranoid option, which reports all processes running and the corresponding
AppArmor profiles that might or might not be associated with each process. The user
can then decide whether each of these programs needs an AppArmor profile.
If you have new or modified profiles, you can submit them to the
[email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] mailing list along with a use case for the application behavior that you exercised. The AppArmor team reviews and may submit the
work into SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. We cannot guarantee that every profile will
be included, but we make a sincere effort to include as much as possible so that end
users can contribute to the security profiles that ship in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.
Alternatively, use the AppArmor profile repository to make your profiles available to other users and to download profiles created by other AppArmor users
and the AppArmor developers. Refer to Section 22.2, “Using the External
Repository” (page 268) for more information on how to use the AppArmor profile
repository.
20.4.1 Immunizing Web Applications
To find Web applications, investigate your Web server configuration. The Apache
Web server is highly configurable and Web applications can be stored in many directories, depending on your local configuration. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, by default, stores Web applications in /srv/www/cgi-bin/. To the maximum extent
possible, each Web application should have an AppArmor profile.
Once you find these programs, you can use the AppArmor Add Profile Wizard
to create profiles for them. Refer to Section 23.1, “Adding a Profile Using the
Wizard” (page 273).
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Because CGI programs are executed by the Apache Web server, the profile for
Apache itself, usr.sbin.httpd2-prefork for Apache2 on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, must be modified to add execute permissions to each of these programs.
For instance, adding the line /srv/www/cgi-bin/my_hit_counter.pl
rpx grants Apache permission to execute the Perl script my_hit_counter.pl
and requires that there be a dedicated profile for my_hit_counter.pl. If
my_hit_counter.pl does not have a dedicated profile associated with it, the
rule should say /srv/www/cgi-bin/my_hit_counter.pl rix to cause
my_hit_counter.pl to inherit the usr.sbin.httpd2-prefork profile.
Some users might find it inconvenient to specify execute permission for every CGI
script that Apache might invoke. Instead, the administrator can grant controlled access
to collections of CGI scripts. For instance, adding the line /srv/www/cgi-bin/
*.{pl,py,pyc} rix allows Apache to execute all files in /srv/www/cgibin/ ending in .pl (Perl scripts) and .py or .pyc (Python scripts). As above, the
ix part of the rule causes Python scripts to inherit the Apache profile, which is appropriate if you do not want to write individual profiles for each Python script.
NOTE
If you want the subprocess confinement module (apache2-mod-ap
parmor) functionality when Web applications handle Apache modules
(mod_perl and mod_php), use the ChangeHat features when you add a
profile in YaST or at the command line. To take advantage of the subprocess
confinement, refer to Section 25.1, “Apache ChangeHat” (page 320).
Profiling Web applications that use mod_perl and mod_php requires slightly different handling. In this case, the “program” is a script interpreted directly by the module within the Apache process, so no exec happens. Instead, the AppArmor version of
Apache calls change_hat() using a subprofile (a “hat”) corresponding to the name
of the URI requested.
NOTE
The name presented for the script to execute might not be the URI, depending on how Apache has been configured for where to look for module scripts.
If you have configured your Apache to place scripts in a different place, the
different names appear in log file when AppArmor complains about access
violations. See Chapter 27, Managing Profiled Applications (page 333).
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For mod_perl and mod_php scripts, this is the name of the Perl script or the PHP
page requested. For example, adding this subprofile allows the localtime.php
page to execute and access the local system time:
/usr/bin/httpd2-prefork {
# ...
^/cgi-bin/localtime.php {
/etc/localtime
/srv/www/cgi-bin/localtime.php
/usr/lib/locale/**
}
}
r,
r,
r,
If no subprofile has been defined, the AppArmor version of Apache applies the
DEFAULT_URI hat. This subprofile is basically sufficient to display an HTML Web
page. The DEFAULT_URI hat that AppArmor provides by default is the following:
^DEFAULT_URI {
/usr/sbin/suexec2
/var/log/apache2/**
@{HOME}/public_html
@{HOME}/public_html/**
/srv/www/htdocs
/srv/www/htdocs/**
/srv/www/icons/*.{gif,jpg,png}
/srv/www/vhosts
/srv/www/vhosts/**
/usr/share/apache2/**
/var/lib/php/sess_*
mixr,
rwl,
r,
r,
r,
r,
r,
r,
r,
r,
rwl }
To use a single AppArmor profile for all Web pages and CGI scripts served by
Apache, a good approach is to edit the DEFAULT_URI subprofile.
20.4.2 Immunizing Network Agents
To find network server daemons and network clients (such as fetchmail, Firefox,
amaroK or Banshee) that need to be profiled, you should inspect the open ports on
your machine, consider the programs that are answering on those ports, and provide
profiles for as many of those programs as possible. If you provide profiles for all programs with open network ports, an attacker cannot get to the file system on your machine without passing through a AppArmor profile policy.
Scan your server for open network ports manually from outside the machine using a
scanner (such as nmap), or from inside the machine using the netstat --inet n -p command. Then, inspect the machine to determine which programs are answering on the discovered open ports.
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TIP
Refer to the man page of the netstat command for a detailed reference of
all possible options.
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Profile Components and
Syntax
21
Building AppArmor profiles to confine an application is very straightforward and intuitive. AppArmor ships with several tools that assist in profile creation. It does not
require you to do any programming or script handling. The only task that is required
of the administrator is to determine a policy of strictest access and execute permissions for each application that needs to be hardened.
Updates or modifications to the application profiles are only required if the software
configuration or the desired range of activities changes. AppArmor offers intuitive
tools to handle profile updates and modifications.
You are ready to build AppArmor profiles after you select the programs to profile.
To do so, it is important to understand the components and syntax of profiles. AppArmor profiles contain several building blocks that help build simple and reusable profile code:
#include Files
#include statements are used to pull in parts of other AppArmor profiles to
simplify the structure of new profiles.
Abstractions
Abstractions are #include statements grouped by common application tasks.
Program Chunks
Program chunks are #include statements that contain chunks of profiles that
are specific to program suites.
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243
Capability Entries
Capability entries are profile entries for any of the POSIX.1e Linux capabilities allowing a fine-grained control over what a confined process is allowed to do
through system calls that require privileges.
Network Access Control Entries
Network Access Control Entries mediate network access based on the address
type and family.
Local Variable Definitions
Local variables define shortcuts for paths.
File Access Control Entries
File Access Control Entries specify the set of files an application can access.
rlimit Entries
rlimit entries set and control an application's resource limits.
For help determining the programs to profile, refer to Section 20.2, “Determining
Programs to Immunize” (page 236). To start building AppArmor profiles with YaST,
proceed to Chapter 23, Building and Managing Profiles with YaST (page 271). To
build profiles using the AppArmor command line interface, proceed to Chapter 24,
Building Profiles from the Command Line (page 293).
21.1 Breaking a AppArmor Profile
into Its Parts
The easiest way of explaining what a profile consists of and how to create one is to
show the details of a sample profile, in this case for a hypothetical application called
/usr/bin/foo:
#include <tunables/global>
# a comment naming the application to confine
/usr/bin/foo
{
#include <abstractions/base>
capability setgid ,
network inet tcp ,
link /etc/sysconfig/foo -> /etc/foo.conf,
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/bin/mount
ux,
/dev/{,u} random
r,
/etc/ld.so.cache
r,
/etc/foo/*
r,
/lib/ld-*.so*
mr,
/lib/lib*.so*
mr,
/proc/[0-9]**
r,
/usr/lib/**
mr,
/tmp/
r,
/tmp/foo.pid
wr,
/tmp/foo.*
lrw,
/@{HOME} /.foo_file
rw,
/@{HOME}/.foo_lock
kw,
owner /shared/foo/** rw,
/usr/bin/foobar
cx,
/bin/**
px -> bin_generic,
# a comment about foo's local (children)profile for /usr/bin/foobar.
profile /usr/bin/foobar {
/bin/bash
rmix,
/bin/cat
rmix,
/bin/more
rmix,
/var/log/foobar*
rwl,
/etc/foobar
r,
}
# foo's hat, bar.
^bar {
/lib/ld-*.so*
/usr/bin/bar
/var/spool/*
}
mr,
px,
rwl,
}
This loads a file containing variable definitions.
The normalized path to the program that is confined.
The curly braces ({}) serve as a container for include statements, subprofiles,
path entries, capability entries, and network entries.
This directive pulls in components of AppArmor profiles to simplify profiles.
Capability entry statements enable each of the 29 POSIX.1e draft capabilities.
A directive determining the kind of network access allowed to the application.
For details, refer to Section 21.5, “Network Access Control” (page 251).
A link pair rule specifying the source and the target of a link. See Section 21.7.6, “Link Pair” (page 256) for more information.
The curly braces ({}) make this rule apply to the path both with and without the
content enclosed by the braces.
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245
A path entry specifying what areas of the file system the program can access.
The first part of a path entry specifies the absolute path of a file (including regular expression globbing) and the second part indicates permissible access modes
(for example r for read, w for write, and x for execute). A whitespace of any
kind (spaces or tabs) can precede pathnames or separate the pathname from the
access modes. Spaces between the access mode and the trailing comma are optional. Find a comprehensive overview of the available access modes in Section 21.7, “File Permission Access Modes” (page 254).
This variable expands to a value that can be changed without changing the entire
profile.
An owner conditional rule, granting read and write permission on files owned by
the user. Refer to Section 21.7.7, “Owner Conditional Rules” (page 256) for
more information.
This entry defines a transition to the local profile /usr/bin/foobar. Find a
comprehensive overview of the available execute modes in Section 21.8, “Execute Modes” (page 257).
A named profile transition to the profile bin_generic located in the global scope.
See Section 21.8.7, “Named Profile Transitions” (page 260) for details.
The local profile /usr/bin/foobar is defined in this section.
This section references a “hat” subprofile of the application. For more details on
AppArmor's ChangeHat feature, refer to Chapter 25, Profiling Your Web Applications Using ChangeHat (page 319).
When a profile is created for a program, the program can access only the files, modes,
and POSIX capabilities specified in the profile. These restrictions are in addition to
the native Linux access controls.
Example: To gain the capability CAP_CHOWN, the program must have both access to CAP_CHOWN under conventional Linux access controls (typically, be a rootowned process) and have the capability chown in its profile. Similarly, to be able
to write to the file /foo/bar the program must have both the correct user ID and
mode bits set in the files attributes (see the chmod and chown man pages) and have
/foo/bar w in its profile.
Attempts to violate AppArmor rules are recorded in /var/log/au
dit/audit.log if the audit package is installed or otherwise in /var/log/
messages. In many cases, AppArmor rules prevent an attack from working because
necessary files are not accessible and, in all cases, AppArmor confinement restricts
the damage that the attacker can do to the set of files permitted by AppArmor.
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21.2 Profile Types
AppArmor knows four different types of profiles: standard profiles, unattached profiles, local profiles and hats. Standard and unattached profiles are stand-alone profiles,
each stored in a file under /etc/apparmor.d/. Local profiles and hats are children profiles embedded inside of a parent profile used to provide tighter or alternate
confinement for a subtask of an application.
21.2.1 Standard Profiles
The default AppArmor profile is attached to a program by its name, so a profile name
must match the path to the application it is to confine.
/usr/bin/foo {
...
}
This profile will be automatically used whenever an unconfined process executes /
usr/bin/foo.
21.2.2 Unattached Profiles
Unattached profiles do not reside in the file system namespace and therefore are not
automatically attached to an application. The name of an unattached profile is preceded by the keyword profile. You can freely choose a profile name, except for the
following limitations: the name must not begin with a : or . character. If it contains a
whitespace, it must be quoted. If the name begins with a /, the profile is considered to
be a standard profile, so the following two profiles are identical:
profile /usr/bin/foo {
...
}
/usr/bin/foo {
...
}
Unattached profiles are never used automatically, nor can they be transitioned to
through a px rule. They need to be attached to a program by either using a named
profile transition (see Section 21.8.7, “Named Profile Transitions” (page 260)) or
with the change_profile rule (see Section 21.2.5, “Change rules” (page 248)).
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247
Unattached profiles are useful for specialized profiles for system utilities that generally should not be confined by a system-wide profile (for example, /bin/bash). They
can also be used to set up roles or to confine a user.
21.2.3 Local Profiles
Local profiles provide a convenient way to provide specialized confinement for utility programs launched by a confined application. They are specified just like standard
profiles except they are embedded in a parent profile and begin with the profile
keyword:
/parent/profile {
...
profile local/profile {
...
}
}
To transition to a local profile, either use a cx rule (see Section 21.8.2, “Discrete Local Profile Execute Mode (cx)” (page 258)) or a named profile transition (see Section 21.8.7, “Named Profile Transitions” (page 260)).
21.2.4 Hats
AppArmor "hats" are a local profiles with some additional restrictions and an implicit rule allowing for change_hat to be used to transition to them. Refer to Chapter 25, Profiling Your Web Applications Using ChangeHat (page 319) for a detailed
description.
21.2.5 Change rules
AppArmor provides change_hat and change_profile rules that control
domain transitioning. change_hat are specified by defining hats in a profile,
while change_profile rules refer to another profile and start with the keyword
change_profile:
change_profile /usr/bin/foobar,
Both change_hat and change_profile provide for an application directed profile transition, without having to launch a separate application.
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change_profile provides a generic one way transition between any of the loaded
profiles. change_hat provides for a returnable parent child transition where an application can switch from the parent profile to the hat profile and if it provides the
correct secret key return to the parent profile at a later time.
change_profile is best used in situations where an application goes through a
trusted setup phase and then can lower its privilege level. Any resources mapped or
opened during the start-up phase may still be accessible after the profile change, but
the new profile will restrict the opening of new resources, and will even limit some of
the resources opened before the switch. Specifically, memory resources will still be
available while capability and file resources (as long as they are not memory mapped)
can be limited.
change_hat is best used in situations where an application runs a virtual machine
or an interpreter that does not provide direct access to the applications resources
(e.g. Apache's mod_php). Since change_hat stores the return secret key in the
application's memory the phase of reduced privilege should not have direct access to
memory. It is also important that file access is properly separated, since the hat can
restrict accesses to a file handle but does not close it. If an application does buffering
and provides access to the open files with buffering, the accesses to these files may
not be seen by the kernel and hence not restricted by the new profile.
WARNING: Safety of Domain Transitions
The change_hat and change_profile domain transitions are less secure than a domain transition done through an exec because they do not affect a processes memory mappings, nor do they close resources that have
already been opened.
21.3 #include Statements
#include statements are directives that pull in components of other AppArmor
profiles to simplify profiles. Include files retrieve access permissions for programs.
By using an include, you can give the program access to directory paths or files that
are also required by other programs. Using includes can reduce the size of a profile.
By default, AppArmor adds /etc/apparmor.d to the path in the #include statement. AppArmor expects the include files to be located in /etc/
Profile Components and Syntax
249
apparmor.d. Unlike other profile statements (but similar to C programs), #include lines do not end with a comma.
To assist you in profiling your applications, AppArmor provides three classes of
#includes: abstractions, program chunks and tunables.
21.3.1 Abstractions
Abstractions are #includes that are grouped by common application tasks. These
tasks include access to authentication mechanisms, access to name service routines,
common graphics requirements, and system accounting. Files listed in these abstractions are specific to the named task. Programs that require one of these files usually require some of the other files listed in the abstraction file (depending on the local
configuration as well as the specific requirements of the program). Find abstractions
in /etc/apparmor.d/abstractions.
21.3.2 Program Chunks
The program-chunks directory (/etc/apparmor.d/program-chunks) contains some chunks of profiles that are specific to program suites and not generally
useful outside of the suite, thus are never suggested for use in profiles by the profile
wizards (aa-logprof and aa-genprof). Currently, program chunks are only
available for the postfix program suite.
21.3.3 Tunables
The tunables directory (/etc/apparmor.d/tunables) contains global variable definitions. When used in a profile, these variables expand to a value that can
be changed without changing the entire profile. Add all the tunables definitions that
should be available to every profile to /etc/apparmor.d/tunables/global.
21.4 Capability Entries (POSIX.1e)
Capability statements are simply the word capability followed by the name of
the POSIX.1e capability as defined in the capabilities(7) man page.
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21.5 Network Access Control
AppArmor allows mediation of network access based on the address type and family.
The following illustrates the network access rule syntax:
network [[<domain> ][<type >][<protocol >]]
Supported domains: inet, ax25, ipx, appletalk, netrom, bridge,
x25, inet6, rose, netbeui, security, key, packet, ash, econet,
atmsvc, sna, irda, pppox, wanpipe, bluetooth
Supported types: stream, dgram, seqpacket, rdm, raw, packet
Supported protocols: tcp, udp, icmp
The AppArmor tools support only family and type specification. The AppArmor
module emits only network domain type in “access denied” messages. And only these are output by the profile generation tools, both YaST and command line.
The following examples illustrate possible network-related rules to be used in AppArmor profiles. Note that the syntax of the last two are not currently supported by the
AppArmor tools.
network
network
network
network
network
network
,
inet ,
inet6 ,
inet stream ,
inet tcp ,
tcp ,
Allow all networking. No restrictions applied with regards to domain, type, or
protocol.
Allow general use of IPv4 networking.
Allow general use of IPv6 networking.
Allow the use of IPv4 TCP networking.
Allow the use of IPv4 TCP networking, paraphrasing the rule above.
Allow the use of both IPv4 and IPv6 TCP networking.
21.6 Paths and Globbing
AppArmor explicitly distinguishes directory pathnames from file pathnames. Use a
trailing / for any directory path that needs to be explicitly distinguished:
Profile Components and Syntax
251
/some/random/example/* r
Allow read access to files in the /some/random/example directory.
/some/random/example/ r
Allow read access to the directory only.
/some/**/ r
Give read access to any directories below /some.
/some/random/example/** r
Give read access to files and directories under /some/random/example.
/some/random/example/**[^/] r
Give read access to files under /some/random/example. Explicitly exclude
directories ([^/]).
Globbing (or regular expression matching) is when you modify the directory path using wild cards to include a group of files or subdirectories. File resources can be specified with a globbing syntax similar to that used by popular shells, such as csh, Bash,
and zsh.
*
Substitutes for any number of any
characters, except /.
Example: An arbitrary number of file
path elements.
**
Substitutes for any number of characters, including /.
Example: An arbitrary number of
path elements, including entire directories.
?
Substitutes for any single character,
except /.
[abc]
Substitutes for the single character a,
b, or c.
Example: a rule that matches /
home[01]/*/.plan allows a pro-
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gram to access .plan files for users
in both /home0 and /home1.
[a-c]
Substitutes for the single character a,
b, or c.
{ab,cd}
Expands to one rule to match ab and
one rule to match cd.
Example: a rule that matches /
{usr,www}/pages/** grants access to Web pages in both /usr/
pages and /www/pages.
[ ^a ]
Substitutes for any character except
a.
21.6.1 Using Variables in Profiles
AppArmor allows to use variables holding paths in profiles. Use global variables to
make your profiles portable and local variables to create shortcuts for paths.
A typical example of when global variables come in handy are network scenarios in
which user home directories are mounted in different locations. Instead of rewriting paths to home directories in all affected profiles, you only need to change the value of a variable. Global variables are defined under /etc/apparmor.d/tun
ables and have to be made available via an #include statement. Find the variable definitions for this use case (@{HOME} and @{HOMEDIRS}) in the /etc/
apparmor.d/tunables/home file.
Local variables are defined at the head of a profile. This is useful to provide the base
of for a chrooted path, for example:
@{CHROOT_BASE}=/tmp/foo
/sbin/syslog-ng {
...
# chrooted applications
@{CHROOT_BASE}/var/lib/*/dev/log w,
@{CHROOT_BASE}/var/log/** w,
...
}
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253
NOTE
With the current AppArmor tools, variables can only be used when manually
editing and maintaining a profile.
21.6.2 Alias rules
Alias rules provide an alternative way to manipulate profile path mappings to site specific layouts. They are an alternative form of path rewriting to using variables, and are
done post variable resolution:
alias /home/ -> /mnt/users/
NOTE
With the current AppArmor tools, alias rules can only be used when manually editing and maintaining a profile. Whats more, they are deactivated by disabled. Enable alias rules by editing /etc/apparmor.d/tunables/alias
21.7 File Permission Access Modes
File permission access modes consist of combinations of the following modes:
254
r
Read mode
w
Write mode (mutually exclusive to a)
a
Append mode (mutually exclusive to
w)
k
File locking mode
l
Link mode
link file -> target
Link pair rule (cannot be combined
with other access modes)
Security Guide
21.7.1 Read Mode (r)
Allows the program to have read access to the resource. Read access is required for
shell scripts and other interpreted content and determines if an executing process can
core dump.
21.7.2 Write Mode (w)
Allows the program to have write access to the resource. Files must have this permission if they are to be unlinked (removed).
21.7.3 Append Mode (a)
Allows a program to write to the end of a file. In contrast to the w mode, the append
mode does not include the ability to overwrite data, to rename, or to remove a file.
The append permission is typically used with applications who need to be able to
write to log files, but which should not be able to manipulate any existing data in the
log files. As the append permission is just a subset of the permissions associated with
the write mode, the w and a permission flags cannot be used together and are mutually exclusive.
21.7.4 File Locking Mode (k)
The application can take file locks. Former versions of AppArmor allowed files to be
locked if an application had access to them. By using a separate file locking mode,
AppArmor makes sure locking is restricted only to those files which need file locking
and tightens security as locking can be used in several denial of service attack scenarios.
21.7.5 Link Mode (l)
The link mode mediates access to hard links. When a link is created, the target file
must have the same access permissions as the link created (with the exception that the
destination does not need link access).
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255
21.7.6 Link Pair
The link mode grants permission to create links to arbitrary files, provided the link
has a subset of the permissions granted by the target (subset permission test). By specifying origin and destination, the link pair rule provides greater control over how hard
links are created. Link pair rules by default do not enforce the link subset permission
test that the standard rules link permission requires. To force the rule to require the
test the subset keyword is used. The following rules are equivalent:
/link
l,
link subset /link -> /**,
NOTE
Currently link pair rules are not supported by YaST and the command line
tools. Manually edit your profiles to use them. Updating such profiles using
the tools is safe, because the link pair entries will not be touched.
21.7.7 Owner Conditional Rules
The file rules can be extended so that they can be conditional upon the the user being
the owner of the file (the fsuid has to match the file's uid). For this purpose the owner keyword is prepended to the rule. Owner conditional rules accumulate just as regular file rules.
owner /home/*/** rw
When using file ownership conditions with link rules the ownership test is done
against the target file so the user must own the file to be able to link to it.
NOTE: Precedence of Regular File Rules
Owner conditional rules are considered a subset of regular file rules. If a regular file rule overlaps with an owner conditional file rule, the resultant permissions will be that of the regular file rule.
21.7.8 Deny Rules
Deny rules can be used to annotate or quiet known rejects. The profile generating
tools will not ask about a known reject treated with a deny rule. Such a reject will also
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Security Guide
not show up in the audit logs when denied, keeping the log files lean. If this is not desired, prepend the deny entry with the keyword audit.
It is also possible to use deny rules in combination with allow rules. This allows you to
specify a broad allow rule, and then subtract a few known files that should not be allowed. Deny rules can also be combined with owner rules, to deny files owned by the
user. The following example allows read/write access to everything in a users directory except write access to the .ssh/ files:
deny /home/*/.ssh/** w,
/home/*/** rw,
The extensive use of deny rules is generally not encouraged, because it makes it much
harder to understand what a profile does. However a judicious use of deny rules can
simplify profiles. Therefore the tools only generate profiles denying specific files and
will not make use of globbing in deny rules. Manually edit your profiles to add deny
rules using globbing. Updating such profiles using the tools is safe, because the deny
entries will not be touched.
21.8 Execute Modes
Execute modes, also named profile transitions, consist of the following modes:
px
Discrete profile execute mode
cx
Discrete local profile execute mode
ux
Unconstrained execute mode
ix
Inherit execute mode
m
Allow PROT_EXEC with mmap(2)
calls
21.8.1 Discrete Profile Execute Mode (px)
This mode requires that a discrete security profile is defined for a resource executed
at an AppArmor domain transition. If there is no profile defined, the access is denied.
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257
WARNING: Using the Discrete Profile Execute Mode
px does not scrub the environment of variables such as LD_PRELOAD. As a
result, the calling domain may have an undue amount of influence over the
called item.
Incompatible with Ux, ux, Px, and ix.
21.8.2 Discrete Local Profile Execute
Mode (cx)
As px, but instead of searching the global profile set, cx only searches the local profiles of the current profile. This profile transition provides a way for an application to
have alternate profiles for helper applications.
NOTE: Limitations of the Discrete Local Profile Execute Mode (cx)
Currently, cx transitions are limited to top level profiles and cannot be used in
hats and children profiles. This restriction will be removed in the future.
Incompatible with Ux, ux, Px, px, Cx, and ix.
21.8.3 Unconstrained Execute Mode (ux)
Allows the program to execute the resource without any AppArmor profile applied to
the executed resource. This mode is useful when a confined program needs to be able
to perform a privileged operation, such as rebooting the machine. By placing the privileged section in another executable and granting unconstrained execution rights, it is
possible to bypass the mandatory constraints imposed on all confined processes. For
more information about what is constrained, see the apparmor(7) man page.
WARNING: Using Unconstrained Execute Mode (ux)
Use ux only in very special cases. It enables the designated child processes to be run without any AppArmor protection. ux does not scrub the environment of variables such as LD_PRELOAD. As a result, the calling domain may
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have an undue amount of influence over the called resource. Use this mode
only if the child absolutely must be run unconfined and LD_PRELOAD must
be used. Any profile using this mode provides negligible security. Use at your
own risk.
This mode is incompatible with Ux, px, Px, and ix.
21.8.4 Clean Exec modes
The clean exec modes allow the named program to run in px, cx and ux mode, but
AppArmor invokes the Linux kernel's unsafe_exec routines to scrub the environment, similar to setuid programs. The clean exec modes are specified with an uppercase letter: Px, Cx and Ux. See the man page of ld.so(8) for some information
about setuid and setgid environment scrubbing.
21.8.5 Inherit Execute Mode (ix)
ix prevents the normal AppArmor domain transition on execve(2) when the profiled program executes the named program. Instead, the executed resource inherits the
current profile.
This mode is useful when a confined program needs to call another confined program
without gaining the permissions of the target's profile or losing the permissions of the
current profile. There is no version to scrub the environment because ix executions
do not change privileges.
Incompatible with cx, ux, and px. Implies m.
21.8.6 Allow Executable Mapping (m)
This mode allows a file to be mapped into memory using mmap(2)'s PROT_EXEC
flag. This flag marks the pages executable. It is used on some architectures to provide non executable data pages, which can complicate exploit attempts. AppArmor uses this mode to limit which files a well-behaved program (or all programs on
architectures that enforce non executable memory access controls) may use as libraries, to limit the effect of invalid -L flags given to ld(1) and LD_PRELOAD,
LD_LIBRARY_PATH, given to ld.so(8).
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21.8.7 Named Profile Transitions
By default, the px and cx (and their clean exec variants, too) transition to a profile
who's name matches the executable name. With named profile transitions, you can
specify a profile to be transitioned to. This is useful if multiple binaries need to share
a single profile, or if they need to use a different profile than their name would specify. Named profile transitions can be used in conjunction with cx, Cx, px and Px.
Currently there is a limit of twelve named profile transitions per profile.
Named profile transitions use -> to indicate the name of the profile that needs to be
transitioned to:
/usr/bin/foo
{
/bin/** px -> shared_profile,
...
/usr/*bash cx -> local_profile,
...
profile local_profile
{
...
}
}
NOTE: Difference Between Normal and Named Transitions
When used with globbing, normal transitions provide a “one to many” relationship—/bin/** px will transition to /bin/ping, /bin/cat, etc, depending on the program being run.
Named transitions provide a “many to one” relationship—all programs that
match the rule regardless of their name will transition to the specified profile.
Named profile transitions show up in the log as having the mode Nx. The
name of the profile to be changed to is listed in the name2 field.
21.8.8 Inheritance Fallback for Profile
Transitions
The px and cx transitions specify a hard dependency (if the specified profile does
not exist, the exec will fail). With the inheritance fallback, the execution will succeed
but inherit the current profile. To specify inheritance fallback, ix is combined with
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cx, Cx, px and Px into the modes cix, Cix, pix and Pix. The fallback modes can
be used with named profile transitions, too.
21.8.9 Variable Settings in Execution
Modes
When choosing one of the Px, Cx or Ux execution modes, take into account that the
following environment variables are removed from the environment before the child
process inherits it. As a consequence, applications or processes relying on any of these
variables do not work anymore if the profile applied to them carries Px, Cx or Ux
flags:
• GCONV_PATH
• GETCONF_DIR
• HOSTALIASES
• LD_AUDIT
• LD_DEBUG
• LD_DEBUG_OUTPUT
• LD_DYNAMIC_WEAK
• LD_LIBRARY_PATH
• LD_ORIGIN_PATH
• LD_PRELOAD
• LD_PROFILE
• LD_SHOW_AUXV
• LD_USE_LOAD_BIAS
• LOCALDOMAIN
• LOCPATH
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261
• MALLOC_TRACE
• NLSPATH
• RESOLV_HOST_CONF
• RES_OPTIONS
• TMPDIR
• TZDIR
21.9 Resource Limit Control
AppArmor provides the ability to set and control an application's resource limits
(rlimits, also known as ulimits). By default AppArmor does not control applications
rlimits, and it will only control those limits specified in the confining profile. For
more information about resource limits, refer to the setrlimit(2), ulimit(1),
or ulimit(3) man pages.
AppArmor leverages the system's rlimits and as such does not provide an additional
auditing that would normally occur. It also cannot raise rlimits set by the system, AppArmor rlimits can only reduce an application's current resource limits.
The values will be inherited by the children of a process and will remain even if a new
profile is transitioned to or the application becomes unconfined. So when an application transitions to a new profile, that profile has the ability to further reduce the applications rlimits.
AppArmor's rlimit rules will also provide mediation of setting an application's hard
limits, should it try to raise them. The application will not be able to raise its hard limits any further than specified in the profile. The mediation of raising hard limits is not
inherited as the set value is, so that once the application transitions to a new profile it
is free to raise its limits as specified in the profile.
AppArmor's rlimit control does not affect an application's soft limits beyond ensuring
that they are less than or equal to the application's hard limits.
AppArmor's hard limit rules have the general form of:
set rlimit resource <= value,
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where resource and value are to be replaced with the following values:
cpu
currently not supported
fsize, data, stack, core, rss, as, memlock, msgqueue
a number in bytes, or a number with a suffix where the suffix can be K (kilobytes), M (megabytes), G (gigabytes), for example
rlimit data <= 100M,
fsize, nofile, locks, sigpending, nproc*, rtprio
a number greater or equal to 0
nice
a value between -20 and 19
*
The nproc rlimit is handled different than all the other rlimits. Instead of indicating the standard process rlimit it controls the maximum number of processes that can
be running under the profile at any given time. Once the limit is exceeded the creation of new processes under the profile will fail until the number of currently running
processes is reduced.
NOTE
Currently the tools cannot be used to add rlimit rules to profiles. The only way
to add rlimit controls to a profile is to manually edit the profile with a text editor. The tools will still work with profiles containing rlimit rules and will not remove them, so it is safe to use the tools to update profiles containing them.
21.10 Auditing Rules
AppArmor provides the ability to audit given rules so that when they are matched an
audit message will appear in the audit log. To enable audit messages for a given rule,
the audit keyword is prepended to the rule:
audit /etc/foo/*
rw,
If it is desirable to audit only a given permission the rule can be split into two rules.
The following example will result in audit messages when files are opened for writing,
but not when they are opened for just reading:
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263
audit /etc/foo/*
/etc/foo/*
w,
r,
NOTE
Audit messages are not generated for every read or write of a file but only
when a file is opened for read or write.
Audit control can be combined with owner conditional file rules to provide auditing
when users access files they own (at the moment it is not possible to audit files they
don't own):
audit owner /home/*/.ssh/**
rw,
21.11 Setting Capabilities per
Profile
Normally AppArmor only restricts existing native Linux controls and does not grant
additional privileges. Therefore a program, having been granted write access to a file
via its profile, would not be able to actually write to this file as long as the mode bits
are set to read-only.
The only exception to this strict rule is the set capability rule. This provides
the ability to give non-root users administrative privileges, as defined in the capabilities(7) man page. Contrary to setting a program to setuid or using file system capabilities (that apply to single programs only), the set capability rule allows the
user to apply capabilities to multiple programs running under a specific profile (by using ix transitions). For security reasons, set capability rules will not be inherited (once
a program leaves the profile, it loses the elevated privilege).
WARNING: Use set capabilities Rules with Extreme Caution
Using the set capabilities rules allows to give processes root privileges.
Therefore these rules should be used with extreme caution and only in exceptional cases.
To set a capability in a profile the keyword “set” is prepended to a capability rule. Setting a capability also implicitly adds a capability rule allowing that capability.
set capability cap_chown,
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NOTE
Currently the tools cannot be used to add rlimit rules to profiles. The only way
to add rlimit controls to a profile is to manually edit the profile with a text editor. The tools will still work with profiles containing rlimit rules and will not remove them, so it is safe to use the tools to update profiles containing them.
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22
AppArmor Profile
Repositories
AppArmor ships a set of profiles enabled by default and created by the AppArmor
developers, and kept under the /etc/apparmor.d. In addition to these profiles,
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server ships profiles for individual applications together with
the relevant application. These profiles are not enabled by default, and reside under
another directory than the standard AppArmor profiles, /etc/apparmor/pro
files/extras.
AppArmor also supports the use of an external profile repository. This repository is
maintained by Novell and allows you to download profiles generated by Novell and
other AppArmor users as well as uploading your own. Find the profile repository at
http://apparmor.opensuse.org.
22.1 Using the Local Repository
The AppArmor tools (YaST and aa-genprof and aa-logprof) support the use
of a local repository. Whenever you start to create a new profile from scratch, and
there already is one inactive profile in your local repository, you are asked whether
you would like to use the existing inactive one from /etc/apparmor/pro
files/extras and whether you want to base your efforts on it. If you decide to
use this profile, it gets copied over to the directory of profiles enabled by default (/
etc/apparmor.d) and loaded whenever AppArmor is started. Any further further
adjustments will be done to the active profile under /etc/apparmor.d.
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22.2 Using the External Repository
The external AppArmor profile repository at http://
apparmor.opensuse.org serves two main purposes: Allowing users to either
browse and download profiles created by other users and uploading their profiles to
be able to easily use them on different machines. A valid login on the profile repository server is required for uploading profiles. Simply downloading profiles from the
server does not require a login.
NOTE: Using the AppArmor Profile Repository
When using the profile repository in your deployment, keep in mind that the
profiles maintained in the repository are primarily targeted at profile developers and might probably need fine-tuning before they suit your particular
needs. Please test the downloaded profiles extensively before deploying
them to your live setup, and adjust them if necessary.
22.2.1 Setting up Profile Repository
Support
Once properly configured, both the YaST and the command line tools support the use
of an external profile repository. The initial configuration takes place when you start
the YaST Add Profile Wizard, the Update Profile Wizard, aa-genprof, or aalogprof to create or update a profile that already exists on the repository server:
1 Determine whether to use the profile repository.
2 Enable the repository for profile downloads.
3 Once you have created or modified a profile, determine whether the tools need to
be able to upload your profile to the repository.
If you choose to upload profiles to the repository, enter your credentials for the
repository server.
The configuration of the repository is done by editing two configuration files, /etc/
apparmor/logprof.conf and /etc/apparmor/respository.conf.
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The /etc/apparmor/logprof.conf file contains a section called [repository]. distro determines the version of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server used
on your system for which the AppArmor tools need to search profiles on the server.
url holds the server URL and preferred_user tells the AppArmor tools to prefer profiles created by the novell user. Those profiles were created, tested and approved by members of the SUSE development team.
...
[repository]
distro
= opensuse10.3
url
= http://apparmor.opensuse.org/backend/api
preferred_user = novell
...
The /etc/apparmor/repository.conf file is created during the configuration process with the AppArmor tools. It contains your authentication data and specifies which actions to enable with regards to the profile repository. If you opt for profile download and do not want to be able to upload your own profiles enabled is set
to yes while upload is set to no.
[repository]
enabled = yes
upload = yes
user = tux
pass = XXXXX
Once initially configured through the AppArmor tools, the configuration can only be
changed manually.
22.2.2 Downloading a Profile
While creating a profile from scratch or updating an existing profile by processing
reject messages in the log, the AppArmor tools search the repository for a matching profile. If the search is successful, the profile or the list of profiles is displayed
and you can view them and choose the one that best matches your setup. As soon
as you have chosen a profile, it gets copied to the local machine (to the /etc/
apparmor.d directory) and activated. Alternatively, you can choose to ignore the
profile on the repository and create your own one from scratch.
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22.2.3 Uploading Your own Profile
After a profile has been created or updated, the AppArmor tools that a profile also
present in the repository has been changed or that a new one has been created. If your
system is configured to upload profiles to the repository, you are prompted to provide
a ChangeLog to document your changes before the changes are uploaded to the server. These changes are only synched to the repository, but not to the creator of the original profile.
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Building and Managing
Profiles with YaST
23
YaST provides an easy way to build profiles and manage AppArmor®. It provides
two interfaces: a graphical one and a text-based one. The text-based interface consumes less resources and bandwidth, making it a better choice for remote administration, or for times when a local graphical environment is inconvenient. Although
the interfaces have differing appearances, they offer the same functionality in similar
ways. Another alternative is to use AppArmor commands, which can control AppArmor from a terminal window or through remote connections. The command line tools
are described in Chapter 24, Building Profiles from the Command Line (page 293).
Start YaST from the main menu and enter your root password when prompted for
it. Alternatively, start YaST by opening a terminal window, logging in as root, and
entering yast2 for the graphical mode or yast for the text-based mode.
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Figure 23.1: YaST Controls for AppArmor
The right frame shows the AppArmor options:
Add Profile Wizard
For detailed steps, refer to Section 23.1, “Adding a Profile Using the
Wizard” (page 273).
Manually Add Profile
Add a AppArmor profile for an application on your system without the help
of the wizard. For detailed steps, refer to Section 23.2, “Manually Adding a
Profile” (page 281).
Edit Profile
Edits an existing AppArmor profile on your system. For detailed steps, refer to
Section 23.3, “Editing Profiles” (page 281).
Delete Profile
Deletes an existing AppArmor profile from your system. For detailed steps, refer
to Section 23.4, “Deleting a Profile” (page 287).
Update Profile Wizard
For detailed steps, refer to Section 23.5, “Updating Profiles from Log
Entries” (page 287).
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AppArmor Reports
For detailed steps, refer to Section 27.3, “Configuring Reports” (page 337).
AppArmor Control Panel
For detailed steps, refer to Section 23.6, “Managing AppArmor and Security
Event Status” (page 288).
23.1 Adding a Profile Using the
Wizard
Add Profile Wizard is designed to set up AppArmor profiles using the AppArmor
profiling tools, aa-genprof (generate profile) and aa-logprof (update profiles
from learning mode log file). For more information about these tools, refer to Section 24.6.3, “Summary of Profiling Tools” (page 299).
1 Stop the application before profiling it to ensure that application start-up is included in the profile. To do this, make sure that the application or daemon is not
running.
For example, enter rcPROGRAM stop (or /etc/init.d/PROGRAM
stop) in a terminal window while logged in as root, replacing PROGRAM with
the name of the program to profile.
2 Start YaST and select AppArmor > Add Profile Wizard.
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3 Enter the name of the application or browse to the location of the program.
4 Click Create. This runs an AppArmor tool named aa-autodep, which
performs a static analysis of the program to profile and loads an approximate profile into the AppArmor module. For more information about aaautodep, refer to Section 24.6.3.1, “aa-autodep—Creating Approximate
Profiles” (page 300).
Depending on whether the profile you are about to create already exists
either in the local profile repository (see Section 22.1, “Using the Local
Repository” (page 267)) or in the external profile repository (see Section 22.2,
“Using the External Repository” (page 268)) or whether it does not exist yet,
proceed with one of the following options:
• Determine whether you want to use or fine-tune an already existing profile
from your local profile repository, as outlined in Step 5 (page 275).
• Determine whether you want to use or fine-tune an already existing profile
from the external profile repository, as outlined in Step 6 (page 275).
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• Create the profile from scratch and proceed with Step 7 (page 275) and beyond.
5 If the profile already exists in the local profile repository under /etc/appar
mor/profiles/extra, YaST informs you that there is an inactive profile
which you can either use as a base for your own efforts or which you can just
accept as is.
Alternatively, you can choose not to use the local version at all and start creating
the profile from scratch. In any case, proceed with Step 7 (page 275).
6 If the profile already exists in the external profile repository and this is the first
time you tried to create a profile that already exists in the repository, configure
your access to the server and determine how to use it:
6a Determine whether you want to enable access to the external repository
or postpone this decision. In case you have selected Enable Repository,
determine the access mode (download/upload) in a next step. In case you
want to postpone the decision, select Ask Me Later and proceed directly
to Step 7 (page 275).
6b Provide username and password for your account on the profile repository server and register at the server.
6c Select the profile to use and proceed to Step 7 (page 275).
7 Run the application to profile.
8 Perform as many of the application functions as possible, so that learning mode
can log the files and directories to which the program requires access to function properly. Be sure to include restarting and stopping the program in the exercised functions. AppArmor needs to handle these events, as well as any other
program function.
9 Click Scan system log for AppArmor events to parse the learning mode log files.
This generates a series of questions that you must answer to guide the wizard in
generating the security profile.
If requests to add hats appear, proceed to Chapter 25, Profiling Your Web Applications Using ChangeHat (page 319).
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275
The questions fall into two categories:
• A resource is requested by a profiled program that is not in the profile (see
Figure 23.2, “Learning Mode Exception: Controlling Access to Specific
Resources” (page 277)). Allow or deny access to a specific resource.
• A program is executed by the profiled program and the security domain transition has not been defined (see Figure 23.3, “Learning Mode Exception:
Defining Execute Permissions for an Entry” (page 277)). Define execute
permissions for an entry.
Each of these cases results in a series of questions that you must answer to add
the resource to the profile or to add the program to the profile. For an example
of each case, see Figure 23.2, “Learning Mode Exception: Controlling Access to
Specific Resources” (page 277) and Figure 23.3, “Learning Mode Exception:
Defining Execute Permissions for an Entry” (page 277). Subsequent steps describe your options in answering these questions.
NOTE: Varying Processing Options
Depending on the type of entry processed, the available options vary.
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Figure 23.2: Learning Mode Exception: Controlling Access to Specific
Resources
Figure 23.3: Learning Mode Exception: Defining Execute Permissions for an
Entry
10 The Add Profile Wizard begins suggesting directory path entries that have been
accessed by the application profiled (as seen in Figure 23.2, “Learning Mode
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Exception: Controlling Access to Specific Resources” (page 277)) or requires
you to define execute permissions for entries (as seen in Figure 23.3, “Learning
Mode Exception: Defining Execute Permissions for an Entry” (page 277)).
• For Figure 23.2: Learning Mode Exception: Controlling Access to Specific
Resources: Select the option that satisfies the request for access, which could
be a suggested include, a particular globbed version of the path, or the actual
pathname. Depending on the situation, these options are available:
#include
The section of a AppArmor profile that refers to an include file. Include
files give access permissions for programs. By using an include, you can
give the program access to directory paths or files that are also required
by other programs. Using includes can reduce the size of a profile. It is
good practice to select includes when suggested.
Globbed Version
Accessed by clicking Glob. For information about globbing syntax, refer
to Section 21.6, “Paths and Globbing” (page 251).
Actual Pathname
Literal path that the program needs to access to run properly.
After selecting a directory path, process it as an entry to the AppArmor profile by clicking Allow or Deny. If you are not satisfied with the directory path
entry as it is displayed, you can also Glob or Edit it.
The following options are available to process the learning mode entries and
build the profile:
Allow
Grant the program access to the specified directory path entries. The
Add Profile Wizard suggests file permission access. For more information about this, refer to Section 21.7, “File Permission Access
Modes” (page 254).
Deny
Click Deny to prevent the program from accessing the specified paths.
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Glob
Clicking this modifies the directory path (using wild cards) to include
all files in the suggested directory. Double-clicking it grants access
to all files and subdirectories beneath the one shown. For more information about globbing syntax, refer to Section 21.6, “Paths and
Globbing” (page 251).
Glob w/Ext
Modify the original directory path while retaining the filename extension.
A single click causes /etc/apache2/file.ext to become /etc/
apache2/*.ext, adding the wild card (asterisk) in place of the filename. This allows the program to access all files in the suggested directories that end with the .ext extension. When you double-click it, access
is granted to all files with the particular extension and subdirectories beneath the one shown.
Edit
Edit the highlighted line. The new edited line appears at the bottom of the
list.
Abort
Abort aa-logprof, losing all rule changes entered so far and leaving
all profiles unmodified.
Finish
Close aa-logprof, saving all rule changes entered so far and modifying all profiles.
Click Allow or Deny for each learning mode entry. These help build the AppArmor profile.
NOTE
The number of learning mode entries corresponds to the complexity
of the application.
• For Figure 23.3: Learning Mode Exception: Defining Execute Permissions
for an Entry: From the following options, select the one that satisfies the re-
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quest for access. For detailed information about the options available, refer to
Section 21.7, “File Permission Access Modes” (page 254).
Inherit
Stay in the same security profile (parent's profile).
Profile
Require a separate profile to exist for the executed program. When selecting this option, also select whether AppArmor should sanitize the environment when switching profiles by removing certain environment variables that can modify the execution behavior of the child process. Unless these variables are absolutely required to properly execute the child
process, always choose the more secure, sanitized option.
Unconfined
Execute the program without a security profile. When prompted, have
AppArmor sanitize the environment to avoid adding security risks by inheriting certain environmental variables from the parent process.
WARNING: Risks of Running Unconfined
Unless absolutely necessary, do not run unconfined. Choosing
the Unconfined option executes the new program without any
protection from AppArmor.
Deny
Click Deny to prevent the program from accessing the specified paths.
Abort
Abort aa-logprof, losing all rule changes entered so far, and leaving
all profiles unmodified.
Finish
Close aa-logprof, saving all rule changes entered so far, and modifying all profiles.
11 Repeat the previous steps if you need to execute more functionality of the application.
When you are done, click Finish. Choose to apply your changes to the local profile set. If you have previously chosen to upload your profile to the external pro280
Security Guide
file repository, provide a brief change log entry describing your work and upload the profile. If you had postponed the decision on whether to upload the
profile or not, YaST asks you again and you can create an account the upload
the profile now or not upload it at all.
As soon as you exit the Profile Creation Wizard, the profile is saved both locally
and on the repository server, if you have chosen to upload it. The profile is then
loaded into the AppArmor module.
23.2 Manually Adding a Profile
AppArmor enables you to create a AppArmor profile by manually adding entries into
the profile. Select the application for which to create a profile then add entries.
1 Start YaST and select AppArmor > Manually Add Profile.
2 Browse your system to find the application for which to create a profile.
3 When you find the application, select it and click Open. A basic, empty profile appears in the AppArmor Profile Dialog window.
4 In AppArmor Profile Dialog, add, edit, or delete AppArmor profile entries by
clicking the corresponding buttons and referring to Section 23.3.1, “Adding an
Entry” (page 283), Section 23.3.2, “Editing an Entry” (page 287), or Section 23.3.3, “Deleting an Entry” (page 287).
5 When finished, click Done.
23.3 Editing Profiles
AppArmor enables you to edit AppArmor profiles manually by adding, editing, or
deleting entries. To edit a profile, proceed as follows:
1 Start YaST and select AppArmor > Edit Profile.
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2 From the list of profiled applications, select the profile to edit.
3 Click Next. The AppArmor Profile Dialog window displays the profile.
4 In the AppArmor Profile Dialog window, add, edit, or delete AppArmor profile
entries by clicking the corresponding buttons and referring to Section 23.3.1,
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“Adding an Entry” (page 283), Section 23.3.2, “Editing an Entry” (page 287),
or Section 23.3.3, “Deleting an Entry” (page 287).
5 When you are finished, click Done.
6 In the pop-up that appears, click Yes to confirm your changes to the profile and reload the AppArmor profile set.
TIP: Syntax Checking in AppArmor
AppArmor contains a syntax check that notifies you of any syntax errors in
profiles you are trying to process with the YaST AppArmor tools. If an error occurs, edit the profile manually as root and reload the profile set with
rcapparmor reload.
23.3.1 Adding an Entry
The Add Entry option can be found in Section 23.2, “Manually Adding a
Profile” (page 281) or Section 23.3, “Editing Profiles” (page 281). When you
select Add Entry, a list shows the types of entries you can add to the AppArmor profile.
From the list, select one of the following:
File
In the pop-up window, specify the absolute path of a file, including the type of
access permitted. When finished, click OK.
You can use globbing if necessary. For globbing information, refer to Section 21.6, “Paths and Globbing” (page 251). For file access permission information, refer to Section 21.7, “File Permission Access Modes” (page 254).
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Directory
In the pop-up window, specify the absolute path of a directory, including the type
of access permitted. You can use globbing if necessary. When finished, click OK.
For globbing information, refer to Section 21.6, “Paths and
Globbing” (page 251). For file access permission information, refer to Section 21.7, “File Permission Access Modes” (page 254).
Network Rule
In the pop-up window, select the appropriate network family and the socket type. For more information, refer to Section 21.5, “Network Access
Control” (page 251).
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Capability
In the pop-up window, select the appropriate capabilities. These are statements
that enable each of the 32 POSIX.1e capabilities. Refer to Section 21.4, “Capability Entries (POSIX.1e)” (page 250) for more information about capabilities.
When finished making your selections, click OK.
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Include
In the pop-up window, browse to the files to use as includes. Includes are directives that pull in components of other AppArmor profiles to simplify profiles. For
more information, refer to Section 21.3, “#include Statements” (page 249).
Hat
286
In the pop-up window, specify the name of the subprofile (hat) to add to your
current profile and click Create Hat. For more information, refer to Chapter 25,
Profiling Your Web Applications Using ChangeHat (page 319).
Security Guide
23.3.2 Editing an Entry
When you select Edit Entry, the file browser pop-up window opens. From here, edit
the selected entry.
In the pop-up window, specify the absolute path of a file, including the type of access
permitted. You can use globbing if necessary. When finished, click OK.
For globbing information, refer to Section 21.6, “Paths and Globbing” (page 251).
For file access permission information, refer to Section 21.7, “File Permission Access
Modes” (page 254).
23.3.3 Deleting an Entry
To delete an entry in a given profile, select Delete Entry. AppArmor removes the selected profile entry.
23.4 Deleting a Profile
AppArmor enables you to delete an AppArmor profile manually. Simply select the
application for which to delete a profile then delete it as follows:
1 Start YaST and select AppArmor > Delete Profile.
2 Select the profile to delete.
3 Click Next.
4 In the pop-up that opens, click Yes to delete the profile and reload the AppArmor
profile set.
23.5 Updating Profiles from Log
Entries
The AppArmor profile wizard uses aa-logprof, the tool that scans log files and
enables you to update profiles. aa-logprof tracks messages from the AppArmor
module that represent exceptions for all profiles running on your system. These exBuilding and Managing Profiles with YaST
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ceptions represent the behavior of the profiled application that is outside of the profile definition for the program. You can add the new behavior to the relevant profile
by selecting the suggested profile entry.
TIP: Support for the External Profile Repository
Similar to the Add Profile Wizard, the Update Profile Wizard also supports profile exchange with the external repository server. For background
information on the use of the external AppArmor profile repository, refer to Section 22.2, “Using the External Repository” (page 268). For details on how to configure access and access mode to the server, check
the procedure described under Section 23.1, “Adding a Profile Using the
Wizard” (page 273).
1 Start YaST and select AppArmor > Update Profile Wizard.
Running Update Profile Wizard (aa-logprof) parses the learning mode log
files. This generates a series of questions that you must answer to guide aa-logprof to generate the security profile. The exact procedure is the same as with creating a new profile. Refer to Step 9 (page 275) in Section 23.1, “Adding a Profile Using the Wizard” (page 273) for details.
2 When you are done, click Finish. In the following pop-up, click Yes to exit the Add
Profile Wizard. The profile is saved and loaded into the AppArmor module.
23.6 Managing AppArmor and
Security Event Status
You can change the status of AppArmor by enabling or disabling it. Enabling AppArmor protects your system from potential program exploitation. Disabling AppArmor,
even if your profiles have been set up, removes protection from your system. You can
determine how and when you are notified when system security events occur.
NOTE
For event notification to work, you must set up a mail server on your system
that can send outgoing mail using the single mail transfer protocol (SMTP),
such as postfix or exim.
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To configure event notification or change the status of AppArmor, start YaST and select AppArmor > AppArmor Control Panel.
From the AppArmor Configuration screen, determine whether AppArmor and security event notification are running by looking for a status message that reads enabled or
configure the mode of individual profiles.
To change the status of AppArmor, continue as described in Section 23.6.1, “Changing AppArmor Status” (page 289). To change the mode of individual profiles, continue as described in Section 23.6.2, “Changing the Mode of Individual
Profiles” (page 290). To configure security event notification, continue as described in Section 27.2, “Configuring Security Event Notification” (page 334).
23.6.1 Changing AppArmor Status
When you change the status of AppArmor, set it to enabled or disabled. When AppArmor is enabled, it is installed, running, and enforcing the AppArmor security policies.
1 Start YaST and select AppArmor > AppArmor Control Panel.
2 Enable AppArmor by checking Enable AppArmor or disable AppArmor by deselecting it.
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3 Click Done in the AppArmor Configuration window.
4 Click File > Quit in the YaST Control Center.
23.6.2 Changing the Mode of Individual
Profiles
AppArmor can apply profiles in two different modes. In complain or learning mode,
violations of AppArmor profile rules, such as the profiled program accessing files not
permitted by the profile, are detected. The violations are permitted, but also logged.
This mode is convenient for developing profiles and is used by the AppArmor tools
for generating profiles. Loading a profile in enforce mode enforces the policy defined
in the profile and reports policy violation attempts to syslogd.
The Profile Modes dialog allows you to view and edit the mode of currently loaded
AppArmor profiles. This feature is useful for determining the status of your system during profile development. During the course of systemic profiling (see Section 24.6.2, “Systemic Profiling” (page 297)), you can use this tool to adjust and
monitor the scope of the profiles for which you are learning behavior.
To edit an application's profile mode, proceed as follows:
1 Start YaST and select AppArmor > AppArmor Control Panel.
2 In the Configure Profile Modes section, select Configure.
3 Select the profile for which to change the mode.
4 Select Toggle Mode to set this profile to complain mode or to enforce mode.
5 Apply your settings and leave YaST with Done.
To change the mode of all profiles, use Set All to Enforce or Set All to Complain.
TIP: Listing the Profiles Available
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spective application, click Show All Profiles and select the profile to configure
from the list that appears.
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Building Profiles from the
Command Line
24
AppArmor® provides the user the ability to use a command line interface rather than
a graphical interface to manage and configure the system security. Track the status
of AppArmor and create, delete, or modify AppArmor profiles using the AppArmor
command line tools.
TIP: Background Information
Before starting to manage your profiles using the AppArmor command line
tools, check out the general introduction to AppArmor given in Chapter 20,
Immunizing Programs (page 233) and Chapter 21, Profile Components and
Syntax (page 243).
24.1 Checking the AppArmor
Module Status
An AppArmor module can be in any one of three states:
Unloaded
The AppArmor module is not loaded into the kernel.
Running
The AppArmor module is loaded into the kernel and is enforcing AppArmor program policies.
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Stopped
The AppArmor module is loaded into the kernel, but no policies are enforced.
Detect the state of the AppArmor module by inspecting /sys/kernel/secu
rity/apparmor/profiles. If cat /sys/kernel/security/apparmor/profiles reports a list of profiles, AppArmor is running. If it is empty and
returns nothing, AppArmor is stopped. If the file does not exist, AppArmor is unloaded.
Manage AppArmor through the script rcapparmor, which can perform the following operations:
rcapparmor start
Behavior depends on the AppArmor module state. If it is unloaded, start loads
the module and starts it, putting it in the running state. If it is stopped, start
causes the module to rescan the AppArmor profiles usually found in /etc/
apparmor.d and puts the module in the running state. If the module is already
running, start reports a warning and takes no action.
rcapparmor stop
Stops the AppArmor module if it is running by removing all profiles from kernel memory, effectively disabling all access controls, and putting the module into
the stopped state. If the AppArmor module is unloaded or already stopped, stop
tries to unload the profiles again, but nothing happens.
rcapparmor restart
Causes the AppArmor module to rescan the profiles in /etc/apparmor.d
without unconfining running processes. Freshly created profiles are enforced and
recently deleted ones are removed from the /etc/apparmor.d directory.
rcapparmor kill
Unconditionally removes the AppArmor module from the kernel. However, unloading modules from the Linux kernel is unsafe. This command is provided only
for debugging and emergencies (when the module might need to be removed).
WARNING
AppArmor is a powerful access control system and it is possible to lock
yourself out of your own machine to the point where you must boot the
machine from a rescue medium (such as the first medium of SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server) to regain control.
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To prevent such a problem, always ensure that you have a running, unconfined, root login on the machine being configured when you restart
the AppArmor module. If you damage your system to the point where logins are no longer possible (for example, by breaking the profile associated with the SSH daemon), you can repair the damage using your running
root prompt then restarting the AppArmor module.
24.2 Building AppArmor Profiles
The AppArmor module profile definitions are stored in the /etc/apparmor.d directory as plain text files. For a detailed description of the syntax of these files, refer
to Chapter 21, Profile Components and Syntax (page 243).
All files in the /etc/apparmor.d directory are interpreted as profiles and are
loaded as such. Renaming files in that directory is not an effective way of preventing
profiles from being loaded. You must remove profiles from this directory to prevent
them from being read and evaluated effectively.
You can use a text editor, such as vim, to access and make changes to these profiles.
The following options contain detailed steps for building profiles:
Adding or Creating AppArmor Profiles
Refer to Section 24.3, “Adding or Creating an AppArmor Profile” (page 295)
Editing AppArmor Profiles
Refer to Section 24.4, “Editing an AppArmor Profile” (page 296)
Deleting AppArmor Profiles
Refer to Section 24.5, “Deleting an AppArmor Profile” (page 296)
24.3 Adding or Creating an
AppArmor Profile
To add or create an AppArmor profile for an application, you can use a systemic or
stand-alone profiling method, depending on your needs. Learn more about these two
approaches in Section 24.6, “Two Methods of Profiling” (page 296).
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24.4 Editing an AppArmor Profile
The following steps describe the procedure for editing an AppArmor profile:
1 If you are not currently logged in as root, enter su in a terminal window.
2 Enter the root password when prompted.
3 Go to the profile directory with cd /etc/apparmor.d/.
4 Enter ls to view all profiles currently installed.
5 Open the profile to edit in a text editor, such as vim.
6 Make the necessary, changes then save the profile.
7 Restart AppArmor by entering rcapparmor restart in a terminal window.
24.5 Deleting an AppArmor Profile
The following steps describe the procedure for deleting an AppArmor profile.
1 If you are not currently logged in as root, enter su in a terminal window.
2 Enter the root password when prompted.
3 Go to the AppArmor directory with cd /etc/apparmor.d/.
4 Enter ls to view all the AppArmor profiles that are currently installed.
5 Delete the profile with rm profilename.
6 Restart AppArmor by entering rcapparmor restart in a terminal window.
24.6 Two Methods of Profiling
Given the syntax for AppArmor profiles in Chapter 21, Profile Components and
Syntax (page 243), you could create profiles without using the tools. However, the ef296
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fort involved would be substantial. To avoid such a situation, use the AppArmor tools
to automate the creation and refinement of profiles.
There are two ways to approach AppArmor profile creation. Tools are available for
both methods.
Stand-Alone Profiling
A method suitable for profiling small applications that have a finite runtime, such
as user client applications like mail clients. For more information, refer to Section 24.6.1, “Stand-Alone Profiling” (page 297).
Systemic Profiling
A method suitable for profiling large numbers of programs all at once and for
profiling applications that may run for days, weeks, or continuously across reboots, such as network server applications like Web servers and mail servers. For
more information, refer to Section 24.6.2, “Systemic Profiling” (page 297).
Automated profile development becomes more manageable with the AppArmor tools:
1 Decide which profiling method suits your needs.
2 Perform a static analysis. Run either aa-genprof or aa-autodep, depending
on the profiling method chosen.
3 Enable dynamic learning. Activate learning mode for all profiled programs.
24.6.1 Stand-Alone Profiling
Stand-alone profile generation and improvement is managed by a program called aagenprof. This method is easy because aa-genprof takes care of everything, but
is limited because it requires aa-genprof to run for the entire duration of the test
run of your program (you cannot reboot the machine while you are still developing
your profile).
To use aa-genprof for the stand-alone method of profiling, refer to Section 24.6.3.4, “aa-genprof—Generating Profiles” (page 303).
24.6.2 Systemic Profiling
This method is called systemic profiling because it updates all of the profiles on the
system at once, rather than focusing on the one or few targeted by aa-genprof or
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stand-alone profiling. With systemic profiling, profile construction and improvement
are somewhat less automated, but more flexible. This method is suitable for profiling
long-running applications whose behavior continues after rebooting, or a large number
of programs all at once.
Build an AppArmor profile for a group of applications as follows:
1 Create profiles for the individual programs that make up your application.
Although this approach is systemic, AppArmor only monitors those programs with
profiles and their children. To get AppArmor to consider a program, you must at
least have aa-autodep create an approximate profile for it. To create this approximate profile, refer to Section 24.6.3.1, “aa-autodep—Creating Approximate
Profiles” (page 300).
2 Put relevant profiles into learning or complain mode.
Activate learning or complain mode for all profiled programs by entering aacomplain /etc/apparmor.d/* in a terminal window while logged
in as root. This functionality is also available through the YaST Profile
Mode module, described in Section 23.6.2, “Changing the Mode of Individual
Profiles” (page 290).
When in learning mode, access requests are not blocked, even if the profile dictates that they should be. This enables you to run through several tests (as shown in
Step 3 (page 298)) and learn the access needs of the program, so it runs properly. With this information, you can decide how secure to make the profile.
Refer to Section 24.6.3.2, “aa-complain—Entering Complain or Learning
Mode” (page 301) for more detailed instructions for using learning or complain
mode.
3 Exercise your application.
Run your application and exercise its functionality. How much to exercise the program is up to you, but you need the program to access each file representing its access needs. Because the execution is not being supervised by aa-genprof, this
step can go on for days or weeks and can span complete system reboots.
4 Analyze the log.
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In systemic profiling, run aa-logprof directly instead of letting aa-genprof
run it (as in stand-alone profiling). The general form of aa-logprof is:
aa-logprof [ -d /path/to/profiles ] [ -f /path/to/logfile ]
Refer to Section 24.6.3.5, “aa-logprof—Scanning the System Log” (page 311)
for more information about using aa-logprof.
5 Repeat Step 3 (page 298) and Step 4 (page 298).
This generates optimum profiles. An iterative approach captures smaller data sets
that can be trained and reloaded into the policy engine. Subsequent iterations generate fewer messages and run faster.
6 Edit the profiles.
You might want to review the profiles that have been generated. You can open and
edit the profiles in /etc/apparmor.d/ using vim.
7 Return to enforce mode.
This is when the system goes back to enforcing the rules of the profiles,
not just logging information. This can be done manually by removing the
flags=(complain) text from the profiles or automatically by using the aaenforce command, which works identically to the aa-complain command,
except it sets the profiles to enforce mode. This functionality is also available
through the YaST Profile Mode module, described in Section 23.6.2, “Changing
the Mode of Individual Profiles” (page 290).
To ensure that all profiles are taken out of complain mode and put into enforce
mode, enter aa-enforce /etc/apparmor.d/*.
8 Rescan all profiles.
To have AppArmor rescan all of the profiles and change the enforcement mode in
the kernel, enter rcapparmor restart.
24.6.3 Summary of Profiling Tools
All of the AppArmor profiling utilities are provided by the apparmor-utils
RPM package and are stored in /usr/sbin. Each tool has a different purpose.
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24.6.3.1 aa-autodep—Creating Approximate
Profiles
This creates an approximate profile for the program or application selected. You can
generate approximate profiles for binary executables and interpreted script programs.
The resulting profile is called “approximate” because it does not necessarily contain
all of the profile entries that the program needs to be properly confined by AppArmor. The minimum aa-autodep approximate profile has, at minimum, a base include directive, which contains basic profile entries needed by most programs. For
certain types of programs, aa-autodep generates a more expanded profile. The
profile is generated by recursively calling ldd(1) on the executables listed on the
command line.
To generate an approximate profile, use the aa-autodep program. The program argument can be either the simple name of the program, which aa-autodep finds by
searching your shell's path variable, or it can be a fully qualified path. The program itself can be of any type (ELF binary, shell script, Perl script, etc.). aa-autodep generates an approximate profile to improve through the dynamic profiling that follows.
The resulting approximate profile is written to the /etc/apparmor.d directory
using the AppArmor profile naming convention of naming the profile after the absolute path of the program, replacing the forward slash (/) characters in the path with
period (.) characters. The general form of aa-autodep is to enter the following in
a terminal window when logged in as root:
aa-autodep [ -d /path/to/profiles ] [program1program2...]
If you do not enter the program name or names, you are prompted for them. /path/
to/profiles overrides the default location of /etc/apparmor.d, should you
keep profiles in a location other than the default.
To begin profiling, you must create profiles for each main executable service that is
part of your application (anything that might start without being a child of another
program that already has a profile). Finding all such programs depends on the application in question. Here are several strategies for finding such programs:
Directories
If all the programs to profile are in one directory and there are no other programs
in that directory, the simple command aa-autodep /path/to/your/
programs/* creates basic profiles for all programs in that directory.
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ps command
You can run your application and use the standard Linux ps command to find
all processes running. Then manually hunt down the location of these programs
and run the aa-autodep for each one. If the programs are in your path, aaautodep finds them for you. If they are not in your path, the standard Linux
command find might be helpful in finding your programs. Execute find /
-name 'my_application' -print to determine an application's path
(my_application being an example application). You may use wild cards if
appropriate.
24.6.3.2 aa-complain—Entering Complain or
Learning Mode
The complain or learning mode tool (aa-complain) detects violations of AppArmor profile rules, such as the profiled program accessing files not permitted by the
profile. The violations are permitted, but also logged. To improve the profile, turn
complain mode on, run the program through a suite of tests to generate log events that
characterize the program's access needs, then postprocess the log with the AppArmor
tools to transform log events into improved profiles.
Manually activating complain mode (using the command line) adds a flag to the top
of the profile so that /bin/foo becomes /bin/foo flags=(complain). To
use complain mode, open a terminal window and enter one of the following lines as
root:
• If the example program (program1) is in your path, use:
aa-complain [program1program2 ...]
• If the program is not in your path, specify the entire path as follows:
aa-complain /sbin/program1
• If the profiles are not in /etc/apparmor.d, use the following to override the
default location:
aa-complain /path/to/profiles/program1
• Specify the profile for program1 as follows:
aa-complain /etc/apparmor.d/sbin.program1
Each of the above commands activates the complain mode for the profiles or programs listed. If the program name does not include its entire path, aa-complain
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searches $PATH for the program. For instance, aa-complain /usr/sbin/*
finds profiles associated with all of the programs in /usr/sbin and puts them into
complain mode. aa-complain /etc/apparmor.d/* puts all of the profiles in
/etc/apparmor.d into complain mode.
TIP: Toggling Profile Mode with YaST
YaST offers a graphical front-end for toggling complain and enforce mode.
See Section 23.6.2, “Changing the Mode of Individual Profiles” (page 290)
for information.
24.6.3.3 aa-enforce—Entering Enforce Mode
The enforce mode detects violations of AppArmor profile rules, such as the profiled
program accessing files not permitted by the profile. The violations are logged and not
permitted. The default is for enforce mode to be enabled. To log the violations only,
but still permit them, use complain mode. Enforce toggles with complain mode.
Manually activating enforce mode (using the command line) adds a flag to the top of
the profile so that /bin/foo becomes /bin/foo flags=(enforce). To use
enforce mode, open a terminal window and enter one of the following lines as root.
• If the example program (program1) is in your path, use:
aa-enforce [program1program2 ...]
• If the program is not in your path, specify the entire path, as follows:
aa-enforce /sbin/program1
• If the profiles are not in /etc/apparmor.d, use the following to override the
default location:
aa-enforce /path/to/profiles/program1
• Specify the profile for program1 as follows:
aa-enforce /etc/apparmor.d/sbin.program1
Each of the above commands activates the enforce mode for the profiles and programs listed.
If you do not enter the program or profile names, you are prompted to enter one. /
path/to/profiles overrides the default location of /etc/apparmor.d.
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The argument can be either a list of programs or a list of profiles. If the program
name does not include its entire path, aa-enforce searches $PATH for the program.
TIP: Toggling Profile Mode with YaST
YaST offers a graphical front-end for toggling complain and enforce mode.
See Section 23.6.2, “Changing the Mode of Individual Profiles” (page 290)
for information.
24.6.3.4 aa-genprof—Generating Profiles
aa-genprof is AppArmor's profile generating utility. It runs aa-autodep on
the specified program, creating an approximate profile (if a profile does not already
exist for it), sets it to complain mode, reloads it into AppArmor, marks the log, and
prompts the user to execute the program and exercise its functionality. Its syntax is as
follows:
aa-genprof [ -d /path/to/profiles ]
program
To create a profile for the the Apache Web server program httpd2-prefork, do the
following as root:
1 Enter rcapache2 stop.
2 Next, enter aa-genprof httpd2-prefork.
Now aa-genprof does the following:
1. Resolves the full path of httpd2-prefork using your shell's path variables. You
can also specify a full path. On SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, the default full
path is /usr/sbin/httpd2-prefork.
2. Checks to see if there is an existing profile for httpd2-prefork. If there is one,
it updates it. If not, it creates one using the aa-autodep as described in Section 24.6.3, “Summary of Profiling Tools” (page 299).
3. Puts the profile for this program into learning or complain mode so that profile
violations are logged, but are permitted to proceed. A log event looks like this
(see /var/log/audit/audit.log):
type=APPARMOR_ALLOWED msg=audit(1189682639.184:20816):
operation="file_mmap" requested_mask="::r" denied_mask="::r" fsuid=30
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name="/srv/www/htdocs/index.html" pid=27471 profile="null-complainprofile"
If you are not running the audit daemon, the AppArmor events are logged to /
var/log/messages:
Sep 13 13:20:30 K23 kernel: audit(1189682430.672:20810):
operation="file_mmap" requested_mask="::r" denied_mask="::r" fsuid=30
name="/srv/www/htdocs/phpsysinfo/templates/bulix/form.tpl" pid=30405
profile="/usr/sbin/httpd2-prefork///phpsysinfo/"
They also can be viewed using the dmesg command:
audit(1189682430.672:20810): operation="file_mmap" requested_mask="::r"
denied_mask="::r" fsuid=30 name="/srv/www/htdocs/phpsysinfo/templates/
bulix/form.tpl" pid=30405 profile="/usr/sbin/httpd2-prefork///
phpsysinfo/"
4. Marks the log with a beginning marker of log events to consider. For example:
Sep 13 17:48:52 figwit root: GenProf: e2ff78636296f16d0b5301209a04430d
3 When prompted by the tool, run the application to profile in another terminal window and perform as many of the application functions as possible. Thus, the learning mode can log the files and directories to which the program requires access in
order to function properly. For example, in a new terminal window, enter rcapache2 start.
4 Select from the following options that are available in the aa-logprof terminal
window after you have executed the program function:
• S runs aa-logprof on the system log from where it was marked when aagenprof was started and reloads the profile. If system events exist in the log,
AppArmor parses the learning mode log files. This generates a series of questions that you must answer to guide aa-genprof in generating the security
profile.
• F exits the tool and returns to the main menu.
NOTE
If requests to add hats appear, proceed to Chapter 25, Profiling Your Web
Applications Using ChangeHat (page 319).
5 Answer two types of questions:
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• A resource is requested by a profiled program that is not in the profile (see
Example 24.1, “Learning Mode Exception: Controlling Access to Specific
Resources” (page 305)).
• A program is executed by the profiled program and the security domain transition has not been defined (see Example 24.2, “Learning Mode Exception: Defining Execute Permissions for an Entry” (page 307)).
Each of these categories results in a series of questions that you must answer
to add the resource or program to the profile. Example 24.1, “Learning Mode
Exception: Controlling Access to Specific Resources” (page 305) and Example 24.2, “Learning Mode Exception: Defining Execute Permissions for an
Entry” (page 307) provide examples of each one. Subsequent steps describe
your options in answering these questions.
• Dealing with execute accesses is complex. You must decide how to proceed with
this entry regarding which execute permission type to grant to this entry:
Example 24.1: Learning Mode Exception: Controlling Access to Specific
Resources
Reading log entries from /var/log/audit/audit.log.
Updating AppArmor profiles in /etc/apparmor.d.
Profile:
Program:
Execute:
Severity:
/usr/sbin/xinetd
xinetd
/usr/lib/cups/daemon/cups-lpd
unknown
[(I)nherit] / (P)rofile / (U)nconfined / (D)eny / Abo(r)t / (F)inish
Inherit (ix)
The child inherits the parent's profile, running with the same access controls
as the parent. This mode is useful when a confined program needs to call
another confined program without gaining the permissions of the target's
profile or losing the permissions of the current profile. This mode is often used when the child program is a helper application, such as the /usr/
bin/mail client using less as a pager or the Mozilla* Web browser using Adobe Acrobat* to display PDF files.
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Profile (px)
The child runs using its own profile, which must be loaded into the kernel.
If the profile is not present, attempts to execute the child fail with permission denied. This is most useful if the parent program is invoking a global
service, such as DNS lookups or sending mail with your system's MTA.
Choose the profile with clean exec (Px) option to scrub the environment of
environment variables that could modify execution behavior when passed to
the child process.
Unconfined (ux)
The child runs completely unconfined without any AppArmor profile applied to the executed resource.
Choose the unconfined with clean exec (Ux) option to scrub the environment of environment variables that could modify execution behavior when
passed to the child process. This option introduces a security vulnerability
that could be used to exploit AppArmor. Only use it as a last resort.
mmap (m)
This permission denotes that the program running under the profile can access the resource using the mmap system call with the flag PROT_EXEC.
This means that the data mapped in it can be executed. You are prompted to
include this permission if it is requested during a profiling run.
Deny
Prevents the program from accessing the specified directory path entries.
AppArmor then continues to the next event.
Abort
Aborts aa-logprof, losing all rule changes entered so far and leaving all
profiles unmodified.
Finish
Closes aa-logprof, saving all rule changes entered so far and modifying
all profiles.
• Example 24.2, “Learning Mode Exception: Defining Execute Permissions for
an Entry” (page 307) shows AppArmor suggesting directory path entries that
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have been accessed by the application being profiled. It might also require you to
define execute permissions for entries.
Example 24.2: Learning Mode Exception: Defining Execute Permissions for
an Entry
Adding /bin/ps ix to profile.
Profile: /usr/sbin/xinetd
Path:
/etc/hosts.allow
New Mode: r
[1 - /etc/hosts.allow]
[(A)llow] / (D)eny / (N)ew / (G)lob / Glob w/(E)xt / Abo(r)t / (F)inish
AppArmor provides one or more paths or includes. By entering the option number, select the desired options then proceed to the next step.
NOTE
All of these options are not always presented in the AppArmor menu.
#include
This is the section of an AppArmor profile that refers to an include file,
which procures access permissions for programs. By using an include, you
can give the program access to directory paths or files that are also required
by other programs. Using includes can reduce the size of a profile. It is good
practice to select includes when suggested.
Globbed Version
This is accessed by selecting Glob as described in the next step. For
information about globbing syntax, refer to Section 21.6, “Paths and
Globbing” (page 251).
Actual Path
This is the literal path to which the program needs access so that it can run
properly.
After you select the path or include, process it as an entry into the AppArmor
profile by selecting Allow or Deny. If you are not satisfied with the directory
path entry as it is displayed, you can also Glob it.
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The following options are available to process the learning mode entries and
build the profile:
Select Enter
Allows access to the selected directory path.
Allow
Allows access to the specified directory path entries. AppArmor suggests
file permission access. For more information, refer to Section 21.7, “File
Permission Access Modes” (page 254).
Deny
Prevents the program from accessing the specified directory path entries.
AppArmor then continues to the next event.
New
Prompts you to enter your own rule for this event, allowing you to specify a
regular expression. If the expression does not actually satisfy the event that
prompted the question in the first place, AppArmor asks for confirmation
and lets you reenter the expression.
Glob
Select a specific path or create a general rule using wild cards that match a
broader set of paths. To select any of the offered paths, enter the number
that is printed in front of the path then decide how to proceed with the selected item.
For more information about globbing syntax, refer to Section 21.6, “Paths
and Globbing” (page 251).
Glob w/Ext
This modifies the original directory path while retaining the filename extension. For example, /etc/apache2/file.ext becomes /etc/
apache2/*.ext, adding the wild card (asterisk) in place of the filename.
This allows the program to access all files in the suggested directory that end
with the .ext extension.
Abort
Aborts aa-logprof, losing all rule changes entered so far and leaving all
profiles unmodified.
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Finish
Closes aa-logprof, saving all rule changes entered so far and modifying
all profiles.
6 To view and edit your profile using vim, enter vim /etc/apparmor.d/profilename in a terminal window.
7 Restart AppArmor and reload the profile set including the newly created one using
the rcapparmor restart command.
Like the graphical front-end for building AppArmor profiles, the YaST Add Profile
Wizard, aa-genprof also supports the use of the local profile repository under /
etc/apparmor/profiles/extras and the remote AppArmor profile repository.
To use a profile from the local repository, proceed as follows:
1 Start aa-genprof as described above.
If aa-genprof finds an inactive local profile, the following lines appear on your
terminal window:
Profile: /usr/bin/opera
[1 - Inactive local profile for /usr/bin/opera]
[(V)iew Profile] / (U)se Profile / (C)reate New Profile / Abo(r)t /
(F)inish
2 If you want to just use this profile, hit U (Use Profile) and follow the profile generation procedure outlined above.
If you want to examine the profile before activating it, hit V (View Profile).
If you want to ignore the existing profile, hit C (Create New Profile) and follow the
profile generation procedure outlined above to create the profile from scratch.
3 Leave aa-genprof by hitting F (Finish) when you are done and save your
changes.
To use the remote AppArmor profile repository with aa-genprof, proceed as follows:
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1 Start aa-genprof as described above.
If aa-genprof detects a suitable profile on the repository server, the following
lines appear on your terminal window:
Repository: http://apparmor.opensuse.org/backend/api
Would you like to enable access to the profile repository?
(E)nable Repository / (D)isable Repository / Ask Me (L)ater
2 Hit E (Enable Repository) to enable the repository.
3 Determine whether you want to aa-genprof to upload any profiles to the repository server:
Would you like to upload newly created and changed profiles to
the profile repository?
(Y)es / (N)o / Ask Me (L)ater
Hit Y (Yes), if you want to enable profile upload or select N (No), if you want aagenprof to just pull profiles from the repository, but not to upload any.
4 Create a new user on the profile repository server to be able to upload profiles.
Provide username and password.
5 Determine whether you want to use the profile downloaded from the server or
whether you would just like to review it:
Profile: /usr/bin/opera
[1 - novell]
[(V)iew Profile] / (U)se Profile / (C)reate New Profile / Abo(r)t /
(F)inish
If you want to just use this profile, hit U (Use Profile) and follow the profile generation procedure outlined above.
If you want to examine the profile before activating it, hit V (View Profile).
If you want to ignore the existing profile, hit C (Create New Profile) and follow the
profile generation procedure outlined above to create the profile from scratch.
6 Leave aa-genprof by hitting F (Finish) when you are done and save the profile.
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If you opted for uploading your profile, provide a short change log and push it to
the repository.
24.6.3.5 aa-logprof—Scanning the System Log
aa-logprof is an interactive tool used to review the learning or complain-mode
output found in the log entries in /var/log/audit/audit.log or /var/
log/messages (if auditd is not running) and generate new entries in AppArmor
security profiles.
When you run aa-logprof, it begins to scan the log files produced in learning or
complain mode and, if there are new security events that are not covered by the existing profile set, it gives suggestions for modifying the profile. The learning or complain mode traces program behavior and enters it in the log. aa-logprof uses this
information to observe program behavior.
If a confined program forks and executes another program, aa-logprof sees this
and asks the user which execution mode should be used when launching the child
process. The execution modes ix, px, Px, ux, and Ux are options for starting the child
process. If a separate profile exists for the child process, the default selection is px.
If one does not exist, the profile defaults to ix. Child processes with separate profiles
have aa-autodep run on them and are loaded into AppArmor, if it is running.
When aa-logprof exits, profiles are updated with the changes. If the AppArmor
module is running, the updated profiles are reloaded and, if any processes that generated security events are still running in the null-complain-profile, those processes are
set to run under their proper profiles.
TIP: Support for the External Profile Repository
Similar to the aa-genprof, aa-logprof also supports profile exchange
with the external repository server. For background information on the use
of the external AppArmor profile repository, refer to Section 22.2, “Using
the External Repository” (page 268). For details on how to configure access
and access mode to the server, check the procedure described under Section 24.6.3.4, “aa-genprof—Generating Profiles” (page 303).
To run aa-logprof, enter aa-logprof into a terminal window while logged in
as root. The following options can be used for aa-logprof:
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aa-logprof -d /path/to/profile/directory/
Specifies the full path to the location of the profiles if the profiles are not located
in the standard directory, /etc/apparmor.d/.
aa-logprof -f /path/to/logfile/
Specifies the full path to the location of the log file if the log file is not located in
the default directory, /var/log/audit/audit.log or /var/log/mes
sages (if auditd is not running).
aa-logprof -m "string marker in logfile"
Marks the starting point for aa-logprof to look in the system log. aa-logprof ignores all events in the system log before the specified mark. If the mark
contains spaces, it must be surrounded by quotes to work correctly. For example:
aa-logprof -m"17:04:21"
or
logprof -m e2ff78636296f16d0b5301209a04430d
aa-logprof scans the log, asking you how to handle each logged event. Each question presents a numbered list of AppArmor rules that can be added by pressing the
number of the item on the list.
By default, aa-logprof looks for profiles in /etc/apparmor.d/ and scans the
log in /var/log/messages. In many cases, running aa-logprof as root is
enough to create the profile.
However, there might be times when you need to search archived log files, such as
if the program exercise period exceeds the log rotation window (when the log file
is archived and a new log file is started). If this is the case, you can enter zcat -f
`ls -1tr /var/log/messages*` | aa-logprof -f -.
24.6.3.6 aa-logprof Example 1
The following is an example of how aa-logprof addresses httpd2-prefork accessing the file /etc/group. [] indicates the default option.
In this example, the access to /etc/group is part of httpd2-prefork accessing name
services. The appropriate response is 1, which includes a predefined set of AppArmor
rules. Selecting 1 to #include the name service package resolves all of the future
questions pertaining to DNS lookups and also makes the profile less brittle in that any
changes to DNS configuration and the associated name service profile package can be
made just once, rather than needing to revise many profiles.
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Profile: /usr/sbin/httpd2-prefork
Path:
/etc/group
New Mode: r
[1 - #include <abstractions/nameservice>]
2 - /etc/group
[(A)llow] / (D)eny / (N)ew / (G)lob / Glob w/(E)xt / Abo(r)t / (F)inish
Select one of the following responses:
Select Enter
Triggers the default action, which is, in this example, allowing access to the specified directory path entry.
Allow
Allows access to the specified directory path entries. AppArmor suggests file permission access. For more information about this, refer to Section 21.7, “File Permission Access Modes” (page 254).
Deny
Prevents the program from accessing the specified directory path entries. AppArmor then continues to the next event.
New
Prompts you to enter your own rule for this event, allowing you to specify whatever form of regular expression you want. If the expression entered does not actually satisfy the event that prompted the question in the first place, AppArmor asks
for confirmation and lets you reenter the expression.
Glob
Select either a specific path or create a general rule using wild cards that matches on a broader set of paths. To select any of the offered paths, enter the number
that is printed in front of the paths then decide how to proceed with the selected
item.
For more information about globbing syntax, refer to Section 21.6, “Paths and
Globbing” (page 251).
Glob w/Ext
This modifies the original directory path while retaining the filename extension. For example, /etc/apache2/file.ext becomes /etc/apache2/
*.ext, adding the wild card (asterisk) in place of the filename. This allows the
program to access all files in the suggested directory that end with the .ext extension.
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Abort
Aborts aa-logprof, losing all rule changes entered so far and leaving all profiles unmodified.
Finish
Closes aa-logprof, saving all rule changes entered so far and modifying all
profiles.
24.6.3.7 aa-logprof Example 2
For example, when profiling vsftpd, see this question:
Profile: /usr/sbin/vsftpd
Path:
/y2k.jpg
New Mode: r
[1 - /y2k.jpg]
(A)llow / [(D)eny] / (N)ew / (G)lob / Glob w/(E)xt / Abo(r)t / (F)inish
Several items of interest appear in this question. First, note that vsftpd is asking for a
path entry at the top of the tree, even though vsftpd on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
serves FTP files from /srv/ftp by default. This is because httpd2-prefork uses chroot and, for the portion of the code inside the chroot jail, AppArmor sees file accesses in terms of the chroot environment rather than the global absolute path.
The second item of interest is that you might want to grant FTP read access to all
JPEG files in the directory, so you could use Glob w/Ext and use the suggested path
of /*.jpg. Doing so collapses all previous rules granting access to individual .jpg
files and forestalls any future questions pertaining to access to .jpg files.
Finally, you might want to grant more general access to FTP files. If you select Glob
in the last entry, aa-logprof replaces the suggested path of /y2k.jpg with /*.
Alternatively, you might want to grant even more access to the entire directory tree,
in which case you could use the New path option and enter /**.jpg (which would
grant access to all .jpg files in the entire directory tree) or /** (which would grant
access to all files in the directory tree).
These items deal with read accesses. Write accesses are similar, except that it is good
policy to be more conservative in your use of regular expressions for write accesses.
Dealing with execute accesses is more complex. Find an example in Example 24.1,
“Learning Mode Exception: Controlling Access to Specific Resources” (page 305).
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In the following example, the /usr/bin/mail mail client is being profiled and
aa-logprof has discovered that /usr/bin/mail executes /usr/bin/less
as a helper application to “page” long mail messages. Consequently, it presents this
prompt:
/usr/bin/nail -> /usr/bin/less
(I)nherit / (P)rofile / (U)nconfined / (D)eny
TIP
The actual executable file for /usr/bin/mail turns out to be /usr/bin/
nail, which is not a typographical error.
The program /usr/bin/less appears to be a simple one for scrolling through text
that is more than one screen long and that is in fact what /usr/bin/mail is using
it for. However, less is actually a large and powerful program that makes use of many
other helper applications, such as tar and rpm.
TIP
Run less on a tar file or an RPM file and it shows you the inventory of these
containers.
You do not want to run rpm automatically when reading mail messages (that leads directly to a Microsoft* Outlook–style virus attack, because RPM has the power to install and modify system programs), so, in this case, the best choice is to use Inherit.
This results in the less program executed from this context running under the profile
for /usr/bin/mail. This has two consequences:
• You need to add all of the basic file accesses for /usr/bin/less to the profile
for /usr/bin/mail.
• You can avoid adding the helper applications, such as tar and rpm, to the /usr/
bin/mail profile so that when /usr/bin/mail runs /usr/bin/less in
this context, the less program is far less dangerous than it would be without AppArmor protection.
In other circumstances, you might instead want to use the Profile option. This has two
effects on aa-logprof:
• The rule written into the profile uses px, which forces the transition to the child's
own profile.
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• aa-logprof constructs a profile for the child and starts building it, in the same
way that it built the parent profile, by assigning events for the child process to the
child's profile and asking the aa-logprof user questions.
If a confined program forks and executes another program, aa-logprof sees this
and asks the user which execution mode should be used when launching the child
process. The execution modes of inherit, profile, unconfined or an option to deny the
execution are presented.
If a separate profile exists for the child process, the default selection is profile. If a
profile does not exist, the default is inherit. The inherit option, or ix, is described in
Section 21.7, “File Permission Access Modes” (page 254).
The profile option indicates that the child program should run in its own profile. A
secondary question asks whether to sanitize the environment that the child program
inherits from the parent. If you choose to sanitize the environment, this places the execution modifier Px in your AppArmor profile. If you select not to sanitize, px is
placed in the profile and no environment sanitizing occurs. The default for the execution mode is px if you select profile execution mode.
The unconfined execution mode is not recommended and should only be used in cases
where there is no other option to generate a profile for a program reliably. Selecting
unconfined opens a warning dialog asking for confirmation of the choice. If you are
sure and choose Yes, a second dialog ask whether to sanitize the environment. Choosing Yes uses the execution mode Ux in your profile. Choosing No uses the execution
mode ux for your profile. The default value selected is Ux for unconfined execution
mode.
IMPORTANT: Running Unconfined
Choosing ux is very dangerous and provides no enforcement of policy (from
a security perspective) of the resulting execution behavior of the child program.
24.6.3.8 aa-unconfined—Identifying Unprotected
Processes
The aa-unconfined command examines open network ports on your system,
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vices that do not have AppArmor profiles. It requires root privileges and that it not
be confined by an AppArmor profile.
aa-unconfined must be run as root to retrieve the process executable link from
the /proc file system. This program is susceptible to the following race conditions:
• An unlinked executable is mishandled
• A process that dies between netstat(8) and further checks is mishandled
NOTE
This program lists processes using TCP and UDP only. In short, this program
is unsuitable for forensics use and is provided only as an aid to profiling all
network-accessible processes in the lab.
24.7 Important Filenames and
Directories
The following list contains the most important files and directories used by the AppArmor framework. If you intend to manage and troubleshoot your profiles manually,
make sure that you know about these files and directories:
/sys/kernel/security/apparmor/profiles
Virtualized file representing the currently loaded set of profiles.
/etc/apparmor/
Location of AppArmor configuration files.
/etc/apparmor/profiles/extras/
A local repository of profiles shipped with AppArmor, but not enabled by default.
/etc/apparmor.d/
Location of profiles, named with the convention of replacing the / in paths with
. (not for the root /) so profiles are easier to manage. For example, the profile
for the program /usr/sbin/ntpd is named usr.sbin.ntpd.
/etc/apparmor.d/abstractions/
Location of abstractions.
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317
/etc/apparmor.d/program-chunks/
Location of program chunks.
/proc/*/attr/current
Check this file to review the confinement status of a process and the profile that
is used to confine the process. The ps auxZ command retrieves this information automatically.
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Profiling Your Web
Applications Using
ChangeHat
A AppArmor® profile represents the security policy for an individual program instance or process. It applies to an executable program, but if a portion of the program
needs different access permissions than other portions, the program can “change hats”
to use a different security context, distinctive from the access of the main program.
This is known as a hat or subprofile.
25
ChangeHat enables programs to change to or from a hat within a AppArmor profile. It enables you to define security at a finer level than the process. This feature requires that each application be made “ChangeHat aware”, meaning that it is modified
to make a request to the AppArmor module to switch security domains at arbitrary
times during the application execution. Two examples for ChangeHat-aware applications are the Apache Web server and Tomcat.
A profile can have an arbitrary number of subprofiles, but there are only two levels:
a subprofile cannot have further sub-subprofiles. A subprofile is written as a separate
profile and named as the containing profile followed by the subprofile name, separated by a ^. Subprofiles must be stored in the same file as the parent profile.
Note that the security of hats is considerably weaker than that of full profiles. That is
to say, if attackers can find just the right kind of bug in a program, they may be able
to escape from a hat into the containing profile. This is because the security of hats is
determined by a secret key handled by the containing process, and the code running
in the hat must not have access to the key. Thus change_hat is most useful in conjunction with application servers, where a language interpreter (such as PERL, PHP, or Java) is isolating pieces of code such that they do not have direct access to the memory
of the containing process.
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319
The rest of this chapter describes using change_hat in conjunction with Apache, to
contain Web server components run using mod_perl and mod_php. Similar approaches can be used with any application server by providing an application module similar to the mod_apparmor described next in Section 25.2.2, “Location and Directory
Directives” (page 327).
NOTE: For More Information
For more information, see the change_hat man page.
25.1 Apache ChangeHat
AppArmor provides a mod_apparmor module (package apache2-mod-apparmor) for the Apache program (only included in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server). This
module makes the Apache Web server ChangeHat aware. Install it along with Apache.
When Apache is ChangeHat aware, it checks for the following customized AppArmor
security profiles in the order given for every URI request that it receives.
• URI-specific hat. For example, ^phpsysinfo/templates/classic/im
ages/bar_left.gif
• DEFAULT_URI
• HANDLING_UNTRUSTED_INPUT
NOTE: Apache Configuration
If you install apache2-mod-apparmor, make sure the module gets loaded
in Apache by executing the following command:
a2enmod apparmor
25.1.1 Managing ChangeHat-Aware
Applications
As with most of the AppArmor tools, you can use two methods for managing ChangeHat, YaST or the command line interface. Managing ChangeHat-aware applications
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from the command line is much more flexible, but the process is also more complicated. Both methods allow you to manage the hats for your application and populate
them with profile entries.
The following steps are a demonstration that adds hats to an Apache profile using
YaST. In the Add Profile Wizard, the AppArmor profiling utilities prompt you to create new hats for distinct URI requests. Choosing to create a new hat allows you to create individual profiles for each URI. You can create very tight rules for each request.
If the URI that is processed does not represent significant processing or otherwise
does not represent a significant security risk, safely select Use Default Hat to process
this URI in the default hat, which is the default security profile.
This example creates a new hat for the URI phpsysinfo and its subsequent accesses. Using the profiling utilities, delegate what to add to this new hat. The resulting hat
becomes a tight-security container that encompasses all the processing on the server
that occurs when the phpsysinfo URI is passed to the Apache Web server.
The URI runs the application phpsysinfo (refer to http://
phpsysinfo.sourceforge.net for more information). The phpsysinfo package is assumed to be installed in /srv/www/htdocs/phpsysinfo in a
clean (new) installation of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and AppArmor.
1 Once phpsysinfo is installed, you are ready to add hats to the Apache profile.
From the AppArmor GUI, select Add Profile Wizard.
2 In Application to Profile, enter httpd2-prefork.
3 Click Create Profile.
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321
4 Restart Apache by entering rcapache2 restart in a terminal window.
Restart any program you are profiling at this point.
5 Open http://localhost/phpsysinfo/ in a Web browser window. The
browser window should display network usage and system information.
NOTE: Data Caching
To ensure that this request is processed by the server and you do not review cached data in your browser, refresh the page. To do this, click the
browser Refresh button to make sure that Apache processes the request
for the phpsysinfo URI.
6 Click Scan System Log for Entries to Add to Profiles. AppArmor launches the aalogprof tool, which scans the information learned in the previous step. It begins
to prompt you with profile questions.
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7 aa-logprof first prompts with Add Requested Hat or Use Default Hat because it
noticed that the phpsysinfo URI was accessed. Select Add Requested Hat.
8 Click Allow.
Choosing Add Requested Hat in the previous step creates a new hat in the profile
and specifies that the results of subsequent questions about the script's actions are
added to the newly created hat rather than the default hat for this application.
In the next screen, AppArmor displays an external program that the script executed. You can specify that the program should run confined by the phpsysinfo hat
(choose Inherit), confined by a separate profile (choose Profile), or that it should
run unconfined or without any security profile (choose Unconfined). For the case
of the Profile option, a new profile is created for the program if one does not already exist.
NOTE: Security Considerations
Selecting Unconfined can create a significant security hole and should be
done with caution.
8a Select Inherit for the /bin/bash path. This adds /bin/bash (accessed
by Apache) to the phpsysinfo hat profile with the necessary permissions.
8b Click Allow.
9 The remaining questions prompt you to generate new hats and add entries to your
profile and its hats. The process of adding entries to profiles is covered in detail in
the Section 23.1, “Adding a Profile Using the Wizard” (page 273).
When all profiling questions are answered, click Finish to save your changes and
exit the wizard.
The following is an example phpsysinfo hat.
Example 25.1: Example phpsysinfo Hat
/usr/sbin/httpd2-prefork {
...
^phpsysinfo {
#include <abstractions/bash>
#include <abstractions/nameservice>
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323
/bin/basename
/bin/bash
/bin/df
/bin/grep
/bin/mount
/bin/sed
/dev/bus/usb/
/dev/bus/usb/**
/dev/null
/dev/tty
/dev/urandom
/etc/SuSE-release
/etc/ld.so.cache
/etc/lsb-release
/etc/lsb-release.d/
/lib/ld-2.6.1.so
/proc/**
/sbin/lspci
/srv/www/htdocs/phpsysinfo/**
/sys/bus/pci/**
/sys/bus/scsi/devices/
/sys/devices/**
/usr/bin/cut
/usr/bin/getopt
/usr/bin/head
/usr/bin/lsb_release
/usr/bin/lsscsi
/usr/bin/tr
/usr/bin/who
/usr/lib/lib*so*
/usr/lib/locale/**
/usr/sbin/lsusb
/usr/share/locale/**
/usr/share/pci.ids
/usr/share/usb.ids
/var/log/apache2/access_log
/var/run/utmp
ixr,
ixr,
ixr,
ixr,
Ux,
ixr,
r,
r,
w,
rw,
r,
r,
r,
r,
r,
ixr,
r,
ixr,
r,
r,
r,
r,
ixr,
ixr,
ixr,
ixr,
ixr,
ixr,
ixr,
mr,
r,
ixr,
r,
r,
r,
w,
kr,
}
}
NOTE: Hat and Parent Profile Relationship
The profile ^phpsysinfo is only valid in the context of a process running
under the parent profile httpd2-prefork.
25.1.2 Adding Hats and Entries to Hats
When you use the Edit Profile dialog (for instructions, refer to Section 23.3, “Editing Profiles” (page 281)) or when you add a new profile using Manually Add Profile
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(for instructions, refer to Section 23.2, “Manually Adding a Profile” (page 281)), you
are given the option of adding hats (subprofiles) to your AppArmor profiles. Add a
ChangeHat subprofile from the AppArmor Profile Dialog window as in the following.
1 From the AppArmor Profile Dialog window, click Add Entry then select Hat. The
Enter Hat Name dialog box opens:
2 Enter the name of the hat to add to the AppArmor profile. The name is the URI
that, when accessed, receives the permissions set in the hat.
3 Click Create Hat. You are returned to the AppArmor Profile Dialog screen.
4 After adding the new hat, click Done.
Profiling Your Web Applications Using ChangeHat
325
NOTE: For More Information
For an example of an AppArmor profile, refer to Example 25.1, “Example phpsysinfo Hat” (page 323).
25.2 Configuring Apache for
mod_apparmor
Apache is configured by placing directives in plain text configuration files. The main
configuration file is usually httpd.conf. When you compile Apache, you can indicate the location of this file. Directives can be placed in any of these configuration
files to alter the way Apache behaves. When you make changes to the main configuration files, you need to start or restart Apache, so the changes are recognized.
25.2.1 Virtual Host Directives
Virtual host directives control whether requests that contain trailing pathname information following an actual filename (or that refer to a nonexistent file in an existing directory) are accepted or rejected. For Apache documentation on virtual
host directives, refer to http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.2/mod/
core.html#virtualhost.
The ChangeHat-specific configuration keyword is AADefaultHatName.
It is used similarly to AAHatName, for example, AADefaultHatName
My_Funky_Default_Hat.
The configuration option is actually based on a server directive, which enables you to
use the keyword outside of other options, setting it for the default server. Virtual hosts
are considered internally within Apache to be separate “servers,” so you can set a default hat name for the default server as well as one for each virtual host, if desired.
When a request comes in, the following steps reflect the sequence in which
mod_apparmor attempts to apply hats.
1. A location or directory hat as specified by the AAHatName keyword
2. A hat named by the entire URI path
3. A default server hat as specified by the AADefaultHatName keyword
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4. DEFAULT_URI (if none of those exist, it goes back to the “parent” Apache hat)
25.2.2 Location and Directory Directives
Location and directory directives specify hat names in the program configuration file so the program calls the hat regarding its security. For Apache, you can
find documentation about the location and directory directives at http://
httpd.apache.org/docs-2.2/sections.html.
The location directive example below specifies that, for a given location,
mod_apparmor should use a specific hat:
<Location /foo/> AAHatName MY_HAT_NAME </Location>
This tries to use MY_HAT_NAME for any URI beginning with /foo/ (/foo/, /
foo/bar, /foo/cgi/path/blah_blah/blah, etc.).
The directory directive works similarly to the location directive, except it refers to a
path in the file system as in the following example:
<Directory "/srv/www/www.immunix.com/docs">
# Note lack of trailing slash
AAHatName immunix.com
</Directory>
Example: The program phpsysinfo is used to illustrate a location directive
in the following example. The tarball can be downloaded from http://
phpsysinfo.sourceforge.net.
1 After downloading the tarball, install it into /srv/www/htdocs/phpsysin
fo.
2 Create /etc/apache2/conf.d/phpsysinfo.conf and add the following
text to it:
<Location "/phpsysinfo">
AAHatName phpsysinfo
</Location>
The following hat should then work for phpsysinfo:
/usr/sbin/httpd2-prefork {
...
^phpsysinfo {
#include <abstractions/bash>
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#include <abstractions/nameservice>
/bin/basename
/bin/bash
/bin/df
/bin/grep
/bin/mount
/bin/sed
/dev/bus/usb/
/dev/bus/usb/**
/dev/null
/dev/tty
/dev/urandom
/etc/SuSE-release
/etc/ld.so.cache
/etc/lsb-release
/etc/lsb-release.d/
/lib/ld-2.6.1.so
/proc/**
/sbin/lspci
/srv/www/htdocs/phpsysinfo/**
/sys/bus/pci/**
/sys/bus/scsi/devices/
/sys/devices/**
/usr/bin/cut
/usr/bin/getopt
/usr/bin/head
/usr/bin/lsb_release
/usr/bin/lsscsi
/usr/bin/tr
/usr/bin/who
/usr/lib/lib*so*
/usr/lib/locale/**
/usr/sbin/lsusb
/usr/share/locale/**
/usr/share/pci.ids
/usr/share/usb.ids
/var/log/apache2/access_log
/var/run/utmp
ixr,
ixr,
ixr,
ixr,
Ux,
ixr,
r,
r,
w,
rw,
r,
r,
r,
r,
r,
ixr,
r,
ixr,
r,
r,
r,
r,
ixr,
ixr,
ixr,
ixr,
ixr,
ixr,
ixr,
mr,
r,
ixr,
r,
r,
r,
w,
kr,
}
}
3 Reload AppArmor profiles by entering rcapparmor restart at a terminal
window as root.
4 Restart Apache by entering rcapache2 restart at a terminal window as
root.
5 Enter http://hostname/phpsysinfo/ into a browser to receive the system
information that phpsysinfo delivers.
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6 Locate configuration errors by going to /var/log/audit/audit.log or
running dmesg and looking for any rejections in the output.
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Confining Users with
pam_apparmor
26
An AppArmor profile applies to an executable program; if a portion of the program needs different access permissions than other portions need, the program
can change hats via change_hat to a different role, also known as a subprofile. The
pam_apparmor PAM module allows applications to confine authenticated users into
subprofiles based on groupnames, usernames, or a default profile. To accomplish this,
pam_apparmor needs to be registered as a PAM session module.
The package pam_apparmor may not installed by default, you may need to install it
using YaST or zypper. Details about how to set up and configure pam_apparmor
can be found in /usr/share/doc/packages/pam_apparmor/README after the package has been installed. For details on PAM, refer to Chapter 2, Authentication with PAM (page 17).
pam_apparmor allows you to set up role-based access control (RBAC). In conjunction with the set capabilities rules (see Section 21.11, “Setting Capabilities
per Profile” (page 264) for more information), it allows you to map restricted admin profiles to users. A detailed HOWTO on setting up RBAC with AppArmor
is available at http://developer.novell.com/wiki/index.php/
Apparmor_RBAC_in_version_2.3.
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27
Managing Profiled
Applications
After creating profiles and immunizing your applications, SUSE® Linux Enterprise
Server becomes more efficient and better protected as long as you perform AppArmor® profile maintenance (which involves analyzing log files, refining your profiles,
backing up your set of profiles and keeping it up-to-date). You can deal with these issues before they become a problem by setting up event notification by e-mail, running
periodic reports, updating profiles from system log entries by running the aa-logprof tool through YaST, and dealing with maintenance issues.
27.1 Monitoring Your Secured
Applications
Applications that are confined by AppArmor security profiles generate messages
when applications execute in unexpected ways or outside of their specified profile.
These messages can be monitored by event notification, periodic report generation, or
integration into a third-party reporting mechanism.
For reporting and alerting, AppArmor uses a userspace daemon (/usr/sbin/aaeventd). This daemon monitors log traffic, sends out notifications, and runs scheduled reports. It does not require any end user configuration and it is started automatically as part of the security event notification through the YaST AppArmor Control
Panel or by the configuration of scheduled reports in the YaST AppArmor Reports
module.
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Apart from transparently enabling and disabling aa-eventd with the YaST modules, you can manually toggle its status with the rcaaeventd init script. The AppArmor event daemon is not required for proper functioning of the profiling process
(such as enforcement or learning). It is just required for reporting.
Find more details on security event notification in Section 27.2, “Configuring Security Event Notification” (page 334) and on scheduled reports in Section 27.3, “Configuring Reports” (page 337).
If you prefer a simple way of being notified of any AppArmor reject events that does
not require you to check your e-mails or any log files, use the AppArmor Desktop
Monitor applet that integrates into the GNOME desktop. Refer to Section 27.4, “Configuring and Using the AppArmor Desktop Monitor Applet” (page 356) for details.
27.2 Configuring Security Event
Notification
Security event notification is a AppArmor feature that informs you when systemic
AppArmor activity occurs. Activate it by selecting a notification frequency (receiving
daily notification, for example). Enter an e-mail address so you can be notified by email when AppArmor security events occur. Select one of the following notification
types:
Terse
Terse notification summarizes the total number of system events without providing details. For example:
jupiter.example.com has had 41 security events since Mon Sep 10 14:53:16
2007.
Summary Notification
Summary notification displays the logged AppArmor security events and lists the
number of individual occurrences, including the date of the last occurrence. For
example:
AppArmor: PERMITTING access to capability ’setgid’ (httpd2-prefork(6347)
profile /usr/sbin/httpd2-prefork active /usr/sbin/httpd2-prefork) 2
times, the latest at Sat Oct 9 16:05:54 2004.
Verbose Notification
Verbose notification displays unmodified, logged AppArmor security events.
It tells you every time an event occurs and writes a new line in the verbose log.
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These security events include the date and time the event occurred, when the application profile permits and rejects access, and the type of file permission access that is permitted or rejected. Verbose notification also reports several messages that the aa-logprof tool (see Section 24.6.3.5, “aa-logprof—Scanning
the System Log” (page 311)) uses to interpret profiles. For example:
type=APPARMOR_DENIED msg=audit(1189428793.218:2880):
operation="file_permission" requested_mask="::w" denied_mask="::w"
fsuid=1000 name="/var/log/apache2/error_log" pid=22969 profile="/usr/
sbin/httpd2-prefork"
NOTE
You must set up a mail server that can send outgoing mail using the SMTP
protocol (for example, postfix or exim) for event notification to work.
1 In the Enable Security Event Notification section of the AppArmor Configuration
window, click Configure.
2 In the Security Event Notification window, enable Terse, Summary, or Verbose event
notification.
2a In each applicable notification type section, enter the e-mail addresses of
those who should receive notification in the field provided. If notification
is enabled, you must enter an e-mail address. Separate multiple e-mail addresses with commas.
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2b For each notification type enabled, select the frequency of notification.
Select a notification frequency from the following options:
• Disabled
• 1 minute
• 5 minutes
• 10 minutes
• 15 minutes
• 30 minutes
• 1 hour
• 1 day
• 1 week
2c For each selected notification type, select the lowest severity level for which
a notification should be sent. Security events are logged and the notifications are sent at the time indicated by the interval when events are equal to
or greater than the selected severity level. If the interval is 1 day, the notification is sent daily, if security events occur.
NOTE: Severity Levels
AppArmor sends out event messages for things that are in the
severity database and above the level selected. Severity levels are
numbered 1 through 10, with 10 being the most severe security incident. The /etc/severity.db file defines the severity level of potential security events. The severity levels are determined by the importance of different security events, such as certain resources accessed or services denied.
3 Click OK.
4 Click Done in the AppArmor Configuration window.
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5 Click File > Quit in the YaST Control Center.
After configuring security event notification, read the reports and determine whether
events require follow up. Follow up may include the procedures outlined in Section 27.5, “Reacting to Security Event Rejections” (page 356).
27.3 Configuring Reports
AppArmor's reporting feature adds flexibility by enhancing the way users can view
security event data. The reporting tool performs the following:
• Creates on-demand reports
• Exports reports
• Schedules periodic reports for archiving
• E-mails periodic reports
• Filters report data by date
• Filters report data by other options, such as program name
Using reports, you can read important AppArmor security events reported in the log
files without manually sifting through the messages only useful to the aa-logprof
tool. Narrow down the size of the report by filtering by date range or program name.
You can also export an html or csv file.
The following are the three types of reports available in AppArmor:
Executive Security Summary
A combined report, consisting of one or more security incident reports from one
or more machines. This report can provide a single view of security events on
multiple machines. For more details, refer to Section 27.3.1.3, “Executive Security Summary” (page 346).
Application Audit Report
An auditing tool that reports which application servers are running and whether
the applications are confined by AppArmor. Application servers are applications that accept incoming network connections. For more details, refer to Section 27.3.1.1, “Application Audit Report” (page 343).
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337
Security Incident Report
A report that displays application security for a single host. It reports policy violations for locally confined applications during a specific time period. You can edit and customize this report or add new versions. For more details, refer to Section 27.3.1.2, “Security Incident Report” (page 344).
To use the AppArmor reporting features, proceed with the following steps:
1 Open YaST > AppArmor.
2 In AppArmor, click AppArmor Reports. The AppArmor Security Event Reports window appears. From the Reports window, select an option and proceed to the respective section for instructions:
View Archive
Displays all reports that have been run and stored in /var/log/appar
mor/reports-archived/. Select the report you want to see in detail and
click View. For View Archive instructions, proceed to Section 27.3.1, “Viewing
Archived Reports” (page 339).
Run Now
Produces an instant version of the selected report type. If you select a security incident report, it can be further filtered in various ways. For Run Now
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instructions, proceed to Section 27.3.2, “Run Now: Running On-Demand
Reports” (page 347).
Add
Creates a scheduled security incident report. For Add instructions, proceed to
Section 27.3.3, “Adding New Reports” (page 349).
Edit
Edits a scheduled security incident report.
Delete
Deletes a scheduled security incident report. All stock or canned reports cannot be deleted.
Back
Returns you to the AppArmor main screen.
Abort
Returns you to the AppArmor main screen.
Next
Performs the same function as the Run Now button.
27.3.1 Viewing Archived Reports
View Reports enables you to specify the location of a collection of reports from one
or more systems, including the ability to filter by date or names of programs accessed
and display them all together in one report.
1 From the AppArmor Security Event Report window, select View Archive.
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339
2 Select the report type to view. Toggle between the different types: SIR (Security Incident Report), App Aud (Application Audit), and ESS (Executive Security Summary).
3 You can alter the directory location of the archived reports in Location of Archived
Reports. Select Accept to use the current directory or select Browse to find a
new report location. The default directory is /var/log/apparmor/re
ports-archived.
4 To view all the reports in the archive, select View All. To view a specific report, select a report file listed in the Report field then select View.
5 For Application Audit and Executive Security Summary reports, proceed to Step
9 (page 342).
6 The Report Configuration Dialog opens for Security Incident reports.
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7 The Report Configuration dialog enables you to filter the reports selected in the
previous screen. Enter the desired filter details. The fields are:
Date Range
To display reports for a certain time period, select Filter By Date Range. Enter
the start and end dates that define the scope of the report.
Program Name
When you enter a program name or pattern that matches the name of the binary executable of the program of interest, the report displays security events
that have occurred for a specific program.
Profile Name
When you enter the name of the profile, the report displays the security events
that are generated for the specified profile. You can use this to see what is being confined by a specific profile.
PID Number
PID number is a number that uniquely identifies one specific process or running program (this number is valid only during the lifetime of that process).
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341
Severity
Select the lowest severity level for security events to include in the report. The
selected severity level (and above) are then included in the reports.
Detail
A source to which the profile has denied access. This includes capabilities and
files. You can use this field to report the resources to which profiles prevent
access.
Access Type
The access type describes what is actually happening with the security event.
The options are PERMITTING, REJECTING, or AUDITING.
Mode
The Mode is the permission that the profile grants to the program or process to
which it is applied. The options are all (all modes without filtering), r (read),
w (write), l (link),x (execute), and m (mmap).
Export Type
Enables you to export a CSV (comma separated values) or HTML file. The
CSV file separates pieces of data in the log entries with commas using a standard data format for importing into table-oriented applications. You can enter
a path for your exported report by typing the full path in the field provided.
Location to Store Log
Enables you to change the location at which to store the exported report. The
default location is /var/log/apparmor/reports-exported. When
you change this location, select Accept. Select Browse to browse the file system.
8 To see the report, filtered as desired, select Next. One of the three reports displays.
9 Refer to the following sections for detailed information about each type of report.
• For the application audit report, refer to Section 27.3.1.1, “Application Audit
Report” (page 343).
• For the security incident report, refer to Section 27.3.1.2, “Security Incident
Report” (page 344).
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• For the executive summary report, refer to Section 27.3.1.3, “Executive Security
Summary” (page 346).
27.3.1.1 Application Audit Report
An application audit report is an auditing tool that reports which application servers
are running and whether they are confined by AppArmor.
The following fields are provided in an application audit report:
Host
The machine protected by AppArmor for which the security events are reported.
Date
The date during which security events occurred.
Program
The name and path of the executing process.
Profile
The absolute name of the security profile that is applied to the process.
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343
PID
A number that uniquely identifies one specific process or running program (this
number is valid only during the lifetime of that process).
State
This field reveals whether the program listed in the program field is confined. If
it is not confined, consider creating a profile for it.
Type
This field reveals the type of confinement the security event represents (either
complain or enforce). If the application is not confined (state), no type of confinement is reported.
27.3.1.2 Security Incident Report
A security incident report displays security events of interest to an administrator. The
SIR reports policy violations for locally confined applications during a specified time
period. It also reports policy exceptions and policy engine state changes. These two
types of security events are defined as follows:
Policy Exceptions
When an application requests a resource that is not defined within its profile, a
security event is triggered. A report is generated that displays security events of
interest to an administrator. The SIR reports policy violations for locally confined
applications during a specified time period. The SIR reports policy exceptions
and policy engine state changes.
Policy Engine State Changes
Enforces policy for applications and maintains its own state, including when engines start or stop, when a policy is reloaded, and when global security feature are
enabled or disabled.
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The fields in the SIR report have the following meanings:
Host
The machine protected by AppArmor for which the security events are reported.
Date
The date during which security events occurred.
Program
The name of the executing process.
Profile
The absolute name of the security profile that is applied to the process.
PID
A number that uniquely identifies one specific process or running program (this
number is valid only during the lifetime of that process).
Severity
Severity levels of events are reported from the severity database. The severity
database defines the importance of potential security events and numbers them 1
through 10, 10 being the most severe security incident. The severity levels are determined by the threat or importance of different security events, such as certain
resources accessed or services denied.
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345
Mode
The mode is the permission that the profile grants to the program or process to
which it is applied. The options are r (read), w (write), l (link), and x (execute).
Detail
A source to which the profile has denied access.This includes capabilities and
files. You can use this field to report the resources to which the profile prevents
access.
Access Type
The access type describes what is actually happening with the security event. The
options are PERMITTING, REJECTING, or AUDITING.
27.3.1.3 Executive Security Summary
A combined report consisting of one or more high-level reports from one or more machines. This report can provide a single view of security events on multiple machines
as long as each machine's data is copied to the report archive directory, which is /
var/log/apparmor/reports-archived. One line of the ESS report represents a range of SIR reports.
The following fields are provided in an executive security summary:
Host
The machine protected by AppArmor for which the security events are reported.
Start Date
The first date in a range of dates during which security events are reported.
End Date
The last date in a range of dates during which security events are reported.
Num Rejects
In the date range given, the total number of security events that are rejected access attempts.
Num Events
In the date range given, the total number of security events.
Ave. Sev
This is the average of the severity levels reported in the date range given. Unknown severities are disregarded in this figure.
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High Sev
This is the severity of the highest severity event reported in the date range given.
27.3.2 Run Now: Running On-Demand
Reports
The Run Now report feature enables you to instantly extract report information from the AppArmor event logs without waiting for scheduled events. If you
need help navigating to the main report screen, see Section 27.3, “Configuring
Reports” (page 337). Perform the following steps to run a report from the list of
reports:
1 Select the report to run instantly from the list of reports in the Schedule Reports
window.
2 Select Run Now or Next. The next screen is dependent on which report you selected
in the previous step. As an example, select a security incident report.
3 The Report Configuration Dialog opens for security incident reports.
4 The Report Configuration Dialog enables you to filter the reports selected in the
previous screen. Enter the desired filter details. The following filter options are
available:
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347
Date Range
To limit reports to a certain time period, select Filter By Date Range. Enter the
start and end dates that determine the scope of the report.
Program Name
When you enter a program name or pattern that matches the name of the binary executable for the relevant program, the report displays security events that
have occurred for that program only.
Profile Name
When you enter the name of the profile, the report displays the security events
that are generated for the specified profile. You can use this to see what is confined by a specific profile.
PID Number
A number that uniquely identifies one specific process or running program
(this number is valid only during the lifetime of that process).
Severity
Select the lowest severity level for security events to include in the report. The
selected severity level and above are included in the reports.
Detail
A source to which the profile has denied access. This includes capabilities and
files. You can use this field to report the resources to which profiles prevent
access.
Access Type
The access type describes the action being taken with the security event. The
options are PERMITTING, REJECTING, or AUDITING.
Mode
The mode is the permission that the profile grants to the program or process
to which it is applied. The options are r (read), w (write), l (link), and x (execute).
Export Type
Enables you to export a CSV (comma separated values) or HTML file. The
CSV file separates pieces of data in the log entries with commas, using a stan-
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Security Guide
dard data format for importing into table-oriented applications. Enter a path
for your exported report by typing in the full path in the field provided.
Location to Store Log
Enables you to change the location that the exported report is stored. The default location is /var/log/apparmor/reports-exported. When you
change this location, select Accept. Select Browse to browse the file system.
5 To see the report, filtered as desired, select Next. One of the three reports displays.
Refer the following sections for detailed information about each type of report.
• For the application audit report, refer to Section 27.3.1.1, “Application Audit
Report” (page 343).
• For the security incident report, refer to Section 27.3.1.2, “Security Incident
Report” (page 344).
• For the executive summary report, refer to Section 27.3.1.3, “Executive Security
Summary” (page 346).
27.3.3 Adding New Reports
Adding new reports enables you to create a scheduled security incident report that displays AppArmor security events according to your preset filters. When a report is set
up in Schedule Reports, it periodically launches a report of AppArmor security events
that have occurred on the system.
You can configure a daily, weekly, monthly, or hourly report to run for a specified period. You can set the report to display rejections for certain severity levels or to filter
by program name, profile name, severity level, or denied resources. This report can be
exported to an HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) or CSV (Comma Separated Values) file format.
NOTE
Return to the beginning of this section if you need help navigating to the main
report screen (see Section 27.3, “Configuring Reports” (page 337)).
To add a new scheduled security incident report, proceed as follows:
Managing Profiled Applications
349
1 Click Add to create a new security incident report. The first page of Add Scheduled
SIR opens.
2 Fill in the fields with the following filtering information, as necessary:
Report Name
Specify the name of the report. Use names that easily distinguish different reports.
Day of Month
Select any day of the month to activate monthly filtering in reports. If you select All, monthly filtering is not performed.
Day of Week
Select the day of the week on which to schedule weekly reports, if desired. If
you select ALL, weekly filtering is not performed. If monthly reporting is selected, this field defaults to ALL.
Hour and Minute
Select the time. This specifies the hour and minute that you would like the reports to run. If you do not change the time, selected reports run at midnight. If
neither month nor day of week are selected, the report runs daily at the specified time.
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E-Mail Target
You have the ability to send the scheduled security incident report via e-mail
to up to three recipients. Just enter the e-mail addresses for those who require
the security incident information.
Export Type
This option enables you to export a CSV (comma separated values) or HTML
file. The CSV file separates pieces of data in the log entries with commas using a standard data format for importing into table-oriented applications. Enter
a path for your exported report by typing in the full path in the field provided.
Location to Store Log
Enables you to change the location where the exported report is stored. The
default location is /var/log/apparmor/reports-exported. When
you change this location, select Accept. Select Browse to browse the file system.
3 Click Next to proceed to the second page of Add Scheduled SIR.
4 Fill in the fields with the following filtering information, as necessary:
Program Name
You can specify a program name or pattern that matches the name of the binary executable for the program of interest. The report displays security events
that have occurred for the specified program only.
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351
Profile Name
You can specify the name of the profile for which the report should display security events. You can use this to see what is being confined by a specific profile.
PID Number
A number that uniquely identifies one specific process or running program
(this number is valid only during the lifetime of that process).
Detail
A source to which the profile has denied access. This includes capabilities and
files. You can use this field to create a report of resources to which profiles
prevent access.
Severity
Select the lowest severity level of security events to include in the report. The
selected severity level and above are included in the reports.
Access Type
The access type describes the action being taken with the security event. The
options are PERMITTING, REJECTING, or AUDITING.
Mode
The mode is the permission that the profile grants to the program or process
to which it is applied. The options are r (read), w (write), l (link), and x (execute).
5 Click Save to save this report. AppArmor returns to the Scheduled Reports main
window where the newly scheduled report appears in the list of reports.
27.3.4 Editing Reports
From the AppArmor Reports screen, you can select and edit a report. The three preconfigured reports (stock reports) cannot be edited or deleted.
NOTE
Return to the beginning of this section if you need help navigating to the main
report screen (see Section 27.3, “Configuring Reports” (page 337)).
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Security Guide
Perform the following steps to modify a report from the list of reports:
1 From the list of reports in the Schedule Reports window, select the report to edit.
This example assumes that you have selected a security incident report.
2 Click Edit to edit the security incident report. The first page of the Edit Scheduled
SIR displays.
3 Modify the following filtering information, as necessary:
Day of Month
Select any day of the month to activate monthly filtering in reports. If you select All, monthly filtering is not performed.
Day of Week
Select the day of the week on which to schedule the weekly reports. If you select All, weekly filtering is not performed. If monthly reporting is selected,
this defaults to All.
Hour and Minute
Select the time. This specifies the hour and minute that you would like the reports to run. If you do not change the time, the selected report runs at midnight. If neither the day of the month nor day of the week is selected, the report runs daily at the specified time.
E-Mail Target
You have the ability to send the scheduled security incident report via e-mail
to up to three recipients. Just enter the e-mail addresses for those who require
the security incident information.
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353
Export Type
This option enables you to export a CSV (comma separated values) or HTML
file. The CSV file separates pieces of data in the log entries with commas, using a standard data format for importing into table-oriented applications. Enter
a path for your exported report by typing the full path in the field provided.
Location to Store Log
Enables you to change the location where the exported report is stored. The
default location is /var/log/apparmor/reports-exported. When
you change this location, select Accept. Select Browse to browse the file system.
4 Click Next to proceed to the next Edit Scheduled SIR page. The second page of Edit
Scheduled Reports opens.
5 Modify the fields with the following filtering information, as necessary:
Program Name
You can specify a program name or pattern that matches the name of the binary executable for the program of interest. The report displays security events
that have occurred for the specified program only.
Profile Name
You can specify the name of the profile for which to display security events.
You can use this to see what is being confined by a specific profile.
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PID Number
Process ID number is a number that uniquely identifies one specific process or
running program (this number is valid only during the lifetime of that process).
Detail
A source to which the profile has denied access. This includes capabilities and
files. You can use this field to create a report of resources to which profiles
prevent access.
Severity
Select the lowest severity level for security events to include in the report. The
selected severity level and above are included in the reports.
Access Type
The access type describes the action being taken with the security event. The
options are PERMITTING, REJECTING, or AUDITING.
Mode
The mode is the permission that the profile grants to the program or process
to which it is applied. The options are r (read), w (write), l (link), and x (execute).
6 Select Save to save the changes to this report. AppArmor returns to the Scheduled
Reports main window where the scheduled report appears in the list of reports.
27.3.5 Deleting Reports
Delete a Report enables you to permanently remove a report from the list of AppArmor scheduled reports. To delete a report, follow these instructions:
1 To remove a report from the list of reports, highlight the report and click Delete.
2 From the confirmation pop-up, select Cancel if you do not want to delete the selected report. If you are sure you want to remove the report permanently from the
list of reports, select Delete.
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27.4 Configuring and Using the
AppArmor Desktop Monitor Applet
The Linux audit framework contains a dispatcher that can send AppArmor events to
any consumer application via dbus. The GNOME AppArmor Desktop Monitor applet
is one example of an application that gathers AppArmor events via dbus. To configure
audit to use the dbus dispatcher, just set the dispatcher in your audit configuration in
/etc/audit/auditd.conf to apparmor-dbus and restart auditd:
dispatcher=/usr/bin/apparmor-dbus
Once the dbus dispatcher is configured correctly, add the AppArmor Desktop Monitor to the GNOME panel by right-clicking the panel and selecting Add to Panel >
AppArmor Desktop Monitor. As soon as a REJECT event is logged, the applet's panel icon changes appearance and you can click the applet to see the number of reject
events per confined application. To view the exact log messages, refer to the audit log
under /var/log/audit/audit.log. React to any REJECT events as described
in Section 27.5, “Reacting to Security Event Rejections” (page 356).
27.5 Reacting to Security Event
Rejections
When you receive a security event rejection, examine the access violation and determine if that event indicated a threat or was part of normal application behavior. Application-specific knowledge is required to make the determination. If the rejected
action is part of normal application behavior, run aa-logprof at the command line
or the Update Profile Wizard in AppArmor to update your profile.
If the rejected action is not part of normal application behavior, this access should
be considered a possible intrusion attempt (that was prevented) and this notification
should be passed to the person responsible for security within your organization.
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27.6 Maintaining Your Security
Profiles
In a production environment, you should plan on maintaining profiles for all of the
deployed applications. The security policies are an integral part of your deployment.
You should plan on taking steps to back up and restore security policy files, plan for
software changes, and allow any needed modification of security policies that your
environment dictates.
27.6.1 Backing Up Your Security Profiles
Backing up profiles might save you from having to reprofile all your programs after
a disk crash. Also, if profiles are changed, you can easily restore previous settings by
using the backed up files.
Back up profiles by copying the profile files to a specified directory.
1 You should first archive the files into one file.To do this, open a terminal window
and enter the following as root:
tar zclpf profiles.tgz /etc/apparmor.d
The simplest method to ensure that your security policy files are regularly backed
up is to include the directory /etc/apparmor.d in the list of directories that
your backup system archives.
2 You can also use scp or a file manager like Konqueror or Nautilus to store the
files on some kind of storage media, the network, or another computer.
27.6.2 Changing Your Security Profiles
Maintenance of security profiles includes changing them if you decide that your system requires more or less security for its applications. To change your profiles in AppArmor, refer to Section 23.3, “Editing Profiles” (page 281).
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27.6.3 Introducing New Software into
Your Environment
When you add a new application version or patch to your system, you should always
update the profile to fit your needs. You have several options, depending on your
company's software deployment strategy. You can deploy your patches and upgrades
into a test or production environment. The following explains how to do this with each
method.
If you intend to deploy a patch or upgrade in a test environment, the best method for
updating your profiles is one of the following:
• Run the profiling wizard by selecting Add Profile Wizard in YaST. This creates a
new profile for the added or patched application. For step-by-step instructions, refer to Section 23.1, “Adding a Profile Using the Wizard” (page 273).
• Run aa-genprof in a terminal while logged in as root. For detailed instructions, refer to Section 24.6.3.4, “aa-genprof—Generating Profiles” (page 303).
If you intend to deploy a patch or upgrade directly into a production environment, the
best method for updating your profiles is one of the following:
• Monitor the system frequently to determine if any new rejections should be added
to the profile and update as needed using aa-logprof. For detailed instructions,
refer to Section 24.6.3.5, “aa-logprof—Scanning the System Log” (page 311).
• Run the YaST Update Profile Wizard to learn the new behavior (high security risk
as all accesses are allowed and logged, not rejected). For step-by-step instructions,
refer to Section 23.5, “Updating Profiles from Log Entries” (page 287).
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Support
This chapter outlines maintenance-related tasks. Learn how to update AppArmor®
and get a list of available man pages providing basic help for using the command line
tools provided by AppArmor. Use the troubleshooting section to learn about some
common problems encountered with AppArmor and their solutions. Report defects or
enhancement requests for AppArmor following the instructions in this chapter.
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28.1 Updating AppArmor Online
Updates for AppArmor packages are provided in the same way as any other update
for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. Retrieve and apply them exactly like for any other
package that ships as part of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.
28.2 Using the Man Pages
There are man pages available for your use. In a terminal, enter man apparmor
to open the apparmor man page. Man pages are distributed in sections numbered 1
through 8. Each section is specific to a category of documentation:
Table 28.1: Man Pages: Sections and Categories
Section
Category
1
User commands
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Section
Category
2
System calls
3
Library functions
4
Device driver information
5
Configuration file formats
6
Games
7
High level concepts
8
Administrator commands
The section numbers are used to distinguish man pages from each other. For example,
exit(2) describes the exit system call, while exit(3) describes the exit C library
function.
The AppArmor man pages are:
• unconfined(8)
• autodep(1)
• complain(1)
• enforce(1)
• genprof(1)
• logprof(1)
• change_hat(2)
• logprof.conf(5)
• apparmor.conf(5)
• apparmor.d(5)
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• apparmor.vim(5)
• apparmor(7)
• apparmor_parser(8)
28.3 For More Information
Find more information about the AppArmor project at the AppArmor Wiki:
http://wiki.apparmor.net/. Find the product documentation for AppArmor, including this document, at http://www.suse.com/documenta
tion/apparmor/ or in the installed system in /usr/share/doc/manual.
28.4 Troubleshooting
This section lists the most common problems and error messages that may occur using
AppArmor.
28.4.1 How to React to odd Application
Behavior?
If you notice odd application behavior or any other type of application problem, you
should first check the reject messages in the log files to see if AppArmor is too closely constricting your application. To check reject messages, start YaST > AppArmor
and go to AppArmor Reports. Select View Archive and App Aud for the application audit report. You can filter dates and times to narrow down the specific periods when
the unexpected application behavior occurred.
If you detect reject messages that indicate that your application or service is too closely restricted by AppArmor, update your profile to properly handle your use case of
the application. Do this with the Update Profile Profile Wizard in YaST, as described
in Section 23.5, “Updating Profiles from Log Entries” (page 287).
If you decide to run your application or service without AppArmor protection, remove the application's profile from /etc/apparmor.d or move it to another location.
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28.4.2 My Profiles do not Seem to Work
Anymore …
If you have been using previous versions of AppArmor and have updated your system
(but kept your old set of profiles) you might notice some applications which seemed
to work perfectly before you updated behaving strangely, or not working at all .
This version of AppArmor introduces a set of new features to the profile syntax and
the AppArmor tools that might cause trouble with older versions of the AppArmor
profiles. Those features are:
• File Locking
• Network Access Control
• The SYS_PTRACE Capability
• Directory Path Access
The current version of AppArmor mediates file locking and introduces a new permission mode (k) for this. Applications requesting file locking permission might misbehave or fail altogether if confined by older profiles which do not explicitly contain
permissions to lock files. If you suspect this being the case, check the log file under /
var/log/audit/audit.log for entries like the following:
type=APPARMOR_DENIED msg=audit(1188913493.299:9304): operation="file_lock"
requested_mask="::k" denied_mask="::k" fsuid=1000 name="/home/
tux/.qt/.qtrc.lock" pid=25736 profile="/usr/bin/opera"
Update the profile using the YaST Update Profile Wizard or the aa-logprof command as outlined below.
The new network access control syntax based on the network family and type specification, described in Section 21.5, “Network Access Control” (page 251), might cause
application misbehavior or even stop applications from working. If you notice a network-related application behaving strangely, check the log file under /var/log/
audit/audit.log for entries like the following:
type=APPARMOR_DENIED msg=audit(1188894313.206:9123):
operation="socket_create" family="inet" sock_type="raw" protocol=1
pid=23810 profile="/bin/ping"
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This log entry means that our example application, /bin/ping in this case, failed
to get AppArmor's permission to open a network connection. This permission has to
be explicitly stated to make sure that an application has network access. To update the
profile to the new syntax, use the YaST Update Profile Wizard or the aa-logprof
command as outlined below.
The current kernel requires the SYS_PTRACE capability, if a process tries to access
files in /proc/pid/fd/*. New profiles need an entry for the file and the capability, where old profiles only needed the file entry. For example:
/proc/*/fd/**
rw,
in the old syntax would translate to the following rules in the new syntax:
capability SYS_PTRACE,
/proc/*/fd/** rw,
To update the profile to the new syntax, use the YaST Update Profile Wizard or the
aa-logprof command as outlined below.
With this version of AppArmor, a few changes have been made to the profile rule
syntax to better distinguish directory from file access. Therefore, some rules matching
both file and directory paths in the previous version might now just match a file path.
This could lead to AppArmor not being able to access a crucial directory at all, and
thus trigger misbehavior of your application and various log messages. The following
examples highlight the most important changes to the path syntax.
Using the old syntax, the following rule would allow access to files and directories in
/proc/net. It would allow directory access only to read the entries in the directory, but not give access to files or directories under the directory, e.g. /proc/net/
dir/foo would be matched by the asterisk (*), but as foo is a file or directory under dir, it cannot be accessed.
/proc/net/*
r,
To get the same behavior using the new syntax, you need two rules instead of one. The
first allows access to the file under /proc/net and the second allows access to directories under /proc/net. Directory access can only be used for listing the contents, not actually accessing files or directories underneath the directory.
/proc/net/* r,
/proc/net/*/ r,
The following rule works similarly both under the old and the new syntax, and allows
access to both files and directories under /proc/net:
/proc/net/**
r,
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To distinguish file access from directory access using the above expression in the new
syntax, use the following two rules. The first one only allows to recursively access directories under /proc/net while the second one explicitly allows for recursive file
access only.
/proc/net/**/ r,
/proc/net/**[^/] r,
The following rule works similarly both under the old and the new syntax and allows
access to both files and directories beginning with foo under /proc/net:
/proc/net/foo**
r,
To distinguish file access from directory access in the new syntax and use the **
globbing pattern, use the following two rules. The first one would have matched both
files and directories in the old syntax, but only matches files in the new syntax due to
the missing trailing slash. The second rule matched neither file nor directory in the old
syntax, but matches directories only in the new syntax:
/proc/net/**foo r,
/proc/net/**foo/ r,
The following rules illustrate how the use of the ? globbing pattern has changed. In
the old syntax, the first rule would have matched both files and directories (four characters, last character could be any but a slash). In the new syntax, it matches only files
(trailing slash is missing). The second rule would match nothing in the old profile syntax, but matches directories only in the new syntax. The last rule matches explicitly
matches a file called bar under /proc/net/foo?. Using the old syntax, this rule
would have applied to both files and directories:
/proc/net/foo? r,
/proc/net/foo?/ r,
/proc/net/foo?/bar r,
To find and resolve issues related to syntax changes, take some time after the update
to check the profiles you want to keep and proceed as follows for each application
you kept the profile for:
1 Make sure that AppArmor is running and that the application's profile is loaded.
2 Start the YaST AppArmor Control Panel and put the application's profile into
complain mode. Log entries are made for any actions violating the current profile,
but the profile is not enforced and the application's behavior not restricted.
3 Run the application covering all the tasks you need this application to be able to
perform.
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4 Start the YaST Update Profile Wizard to update the application's profile according
to the log entries generated while running the application.
5 Once the profile is updated, put it back into enforce mode via the YaST AppArmor Control Panel.
Using the AppArmor command line tools, you would proceed as follows:
1 Put the application's profile into complain mode:
aa-complain /path/to/application
2 Run the application.
3 Update the profile according to the log entries made while running the application:
aa-logprof /path/to/application
4 Put the resulting profile back into enforce mode:
aa-enforce /path/to/application
28.4.3 How to Confine KDE Applications
with AppArmor?
Currently, it is not possible to confine KDE applications to the same extent as any
other application, due to the way KDE manages its processes.
If you want to confine KDE applications, choose one of the following approaches, but
note that none of them are really suited for a standard setup:
Create a Single Profile for the Entire KDE Desktop
As all KDE processes are children of one parent process and AppArmor cannot distinguish an individual application's process from the rest, create one huge
profile to confine the entire desktop all at once. This approach is only feasible
if your setup is a very limited (kiosk-type) one. Maintaining such a profile for a
standard KDE desktop (including all of its applications) would be close to impossible.
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Modify KDE's process handling
Using KDE_EXEC_SLAVES=1 and KDE_IS_PRELINKED=1 variables force
KDE to manage its processes in a way that allows AppArmor to distinguish individual applications from each other and apply profiles to them. This approach
might slow down your desktop considerably, as it turns off a crucial optimization
for speed. Note that the above mentioned environment variables have to be set
before KDM/XDM/GDM or startx are started. One way to achieve this would be
to add them to /etc/security/pam_env.conf.
28.4.4 How to Resolve Issues with
Apache?
Apache is not starting properly or it is not serving Web pages and you just installed
a new module or made a configuration change. When you install additional Apache
modules (like apache2-mod_apparmor) or make configuration changes to
Apache, you should profile Apache again to catch any additional rules that need to be
added to the profile.
28.4.5 Why are the Reports not Sent by EMail?
When the reporting feature generates an HTML or CSV file that exceeds the default
size, the file is not sent. Mail servers have a default hard limit for e-mail size. This
limitation can impede AppArmor's ability to send e-mails that are generated for reporting purposes. If your mail is not arriving, this could be why. Consider the mail
size limits and check the archives if e-mails have not been received.
28.4.6 How to Exclude Certain Profiles
from the List of Profiles Used?
AppArmor always loads and applies all profiles that are available in its profile directory (/etc/apparmor.d/). If you decide not to apply a profile to a certain application, delete the appropriate profile or move it to another location where AppArmor
would not check for it.
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28.4.7 Can I Manage Profiles for
Applications not Installed on my System?
Managing profiles with AppArmor requires you to have access to the log of the system on which the application is running. So you do not need to run the application on
your profile, build host as long as you have access to the machine that runs the application. You can run the application on one system, transfer the logs (/var/log/
audit.log or, if audit is not installed, /var/log/messages) to your profile
build host and run aa-logprof -f path_to_logfile.
28.4.8 How to Spot and fix AppArmor
Syntax Errors?
Manually editing AppArmor profiles can introduce syntax errors. If you attempt to
start or restart AppArmor with syntax errors in your profiles, error results are shown.
This example shows the syntax of the entire parser error.
localhost:~ # rcapparmor start
Loading AppArmor profiles AppArmor parser error in /etc/apparmor.d/
usr.sbin.squid at line 410: syntax error, unexpected TOK_ID, expecting
TOK_MODE
Profile /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.squid failed to load
Using the AppArmor YaST tools, a graphical error message indicates which profile
contained the error and requests you to fix it.
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To fix a syntax error, log in to a terminal window as root, open the profile, and correct the syntax. Reload the profile set with rcapparmor reload.
28.5 Reporting Bugs for AppArmor
The developers of AppArmor are eager to deliver products of the highest quality.
Your feedback and your bug reports help us keep the quality high. Whenever you encounter a bug in AppArmor, file a bug report against this product:
1 Use your Web browser to go to https://bugzilla.novell.com/
index.cgi.
2 Enter the account data of your Novell account and click Login
or
Create a new Novell account as follows:
2a Click Create New Account on the Login to Continue page.
2b Provide a username and password and additional address data and click Create Login to immediately proceed with the login creation.
or
Provide data on which other Novell accounts you maintain to sync all these
to one account.
3 Check whether a problem similar to yours has already been reported by clicking
Search Reports. Use a quick search against a given product and keyword or use the
Advanced Search.
4 If your problem has already been reported, check this bug report and add extra information to it, if necessary.
5 If your problem has not been reported yet, select New from the top navigation bar
and proceed to the Enter Bug page.
6 Select the product against which to file the bug. In your case, this would be your
product's release. Click Submit.
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7 Select the product version, component (AppArmor in this case), hardware platform, and severity.
8 Enter a brief headline describing your problem and add a more elaborate description including log files. You may create attachments to your bug report for screen
shots, log files, or test cases.
9 Click Submit after you have entered all the details to send your report to the developers.
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AppArmor Glossary
Apache
Apache is a freely-available UNIX-based Web server. It is currently the most
commonly used Web server on the Internet. Find more information about Apache
at the Apache Web site at http://www.apache.org.
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application firewalling
AppArmor contains applications and limits the actions they are permitted to take.
It uses privilege confinement to prevent attackers from using malicious programs
on the protected server and even using trusted applications in unintended ways.
attack signature
Pattern in system or network activity that alerts of a possible virus or hacker attack. Intrusion detection systems might use attack signatures to distinguish between legitimate and potentially malicious activity.
By not relying on attack signatures, AppArmor provides "proactive" instead of
"reactive" defense from attacks. This is better because there is no window of vulnerability where the attack signature must be defined for AppArmor as it does for
products using attack signatures to secure their networks.
GUI
Graphical user interface. Refers to a software front-end meant to provide an attractive and easy-to-use interface between a computer user and application. Its elements include such things as windows, icons, buttons, cursors, and scroll bars.
globbing
Filename substitution.
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HIP
Host intrusion prevention. Works with the operating system kernel to block abnormal application behavior in the expectation that the abnormal behavior represents an unknown attack. Blocks malicious packets on the host at the network level before they can “hurt” the application they target.
mandatory access control
A means of restricting access to objects that is based on fixed security attributes
assigned to users, files, and other objects. The controls are mandatory in the sense
that they cannot be modified by users or their programs.
profile foundation classes
Profile building blocks needed for common application activities, such as DNS
lookup and user authentication.
RPM
The RPM Package Manager. An open packaging system available for anyone to
use. It works on Red Hat Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and other Linux and UNIX systems. It is capable of installing, uninstalling, verifying, querying,
and updating computer software packages. See http://www.rpm.org/ for
more information.
SSH
Secure Shell. A service that allows you to access your server from a remote computer and issue text commands through a secure connection.
streamlined access control
AppArmor provides streamlined access control for network services by specifying which files each program is allowed to read, write, and execute. This ensures
that each program does what it is supposed to do and nothing else.
URI
Universal resource identifier. The generic term for all types of names and addresses that refer to objects on the World Wide Web. A URL is one kind of URI.
URL
Uniform Resource Locator. The global address of documents and other resources
on the World Wide Web.
The first part of the address indicates what protocol to use and the second part
specifies the IP address or the domain name where the resource is located.
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For example, in http://www.novell.com, http is the protocol to use.
vulnerabilities
An aspect of a system or network that leaves it open to attack. Characteristics of
computer systems that allow an individual to keep it from correctly operating or
that allows unauthorized users to take control of the system. Design, administrative, or implementation weaknesses or flaws in hardware, firmware, or software.
If exploited, a vulnerability could lead to an unacceptable impact in the form of
unauthorized access to information or the disruption of critical processing.
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Part V. SELinux
Configuring SELinux on
SUSE Linux Enterprise 11
SP2
Since SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 SP2, the SELinux framework is supported on SUSE
Linux Enterprise. In this article you’ll learn how to set it up and how to manage
SELinux on SLE 11 SP2 once it has been installed. The following topics are covered
in this article:
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• SELinux backgrounds
• Understanding SELinux
• Setting up SELinux on SLE 11 SP2
• Managing SELinux on SLE 11 SP2
30.1 SELinux backgrounds
SELinux was developed as an additional Linux security solution that uses the security
framework in the Linux kernel. The purpose was to allow for a more granular security policy that goes beyond what is offered by the default existing permissions of Read
Write and Execute, and also beyond assigning permissions to the different capabilities that are available on Linux. SELinux does this by trapping all syscalls that reach
the kernel, and denying them by default. This means that on a system that has SELinux enabled and nothing else configured, nothing will work. To allow your system to
do anything, as an administrator you will need to write rules and put them in a policy.
An example explains why a solution such as SELinux (or its counterpart AppArmor)
is needed.
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“One morning, I found out that my server was hacked. The server was running SLES
10 SP 3 server, which was patched up to the latest level. A firewall was configured on
it and no unnecessary services were offered by this server. Further analysis learned
that the hacker had come in through a flaky PHP script that was a part of one of the
Apache virtual hosts that were running on this server. The intruder had managed to
get access to a shell, using the wwwrun account that was used by the Apache Web
server. As this wwwrun user, the intruder had created several scripts in the /var/
tmp and the /tmp directories, which were a part of a botnet that was launching a
Distributed Denial of Service attack against different servers on the planet.”
The interesting thing about this hack is that it occurred on a server where nothing was
really wrong. All permissions where set OK, but the intruder had managed to get into the system. What becomes clearly evident from this example is that in some cases additional security is needed—a security that goes beyond what is offered by using
SELinux. As a less complete and less complex alternative, AppArmor can be used.
AppArmor confines specific processes in their abilities to read/write and execute files
(and other things). Its view is mostly that things that happen inside a process cannot
escape.
SELinux instead uses labels attached to objects (e.g. files, binaries, network sockets)
and uses them to determine privilege boundaries, thereby building up a level of confinement that can span more than a process or even the whole system.
SELinux was developed by the US National Security Agency (NSA), and since the
beginning Red Hat has been heavily involved in its development. The first version
of SELinux was offered in the era of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4™, around the year
2006. In the beginning it offered support for essential services only, but over the years
it has developed into a system that offers many rules that are collected in policies to
offer protection to a broad range of services.
SELinux was developed in accordance with some certification standards like Common Criteria and FIPS 140. Because some customers specifically requested solutions
that met these standards, SELinux rapidly became relatively popular.
As an alternative to SELinux, Immunix, a company that was purchased by Novell in
2005, had developed AppArmor. AppArmor was built on top of the same security
principles as SELinux, but took a completely different approach, where it was possible to restrict services to exactly what they needed to do by using an easy to use wizard-driven procedure. Nevertheless, AppArmor has never reached the same status as
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SELinux, even if there are some good arguments to secure a server with AppArmor
rather than with SELinux.
Because more and more governmental organizations currently are requesting SELinux to be present in the Linux distributions they are using, SUSE is offering support
for the SELinux framework in the latest versions of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.
This doesn’t mean that SUSE is about to switch from AppArmor to SELinux soon, for
SUSE it is important that the customer can choose the security solution that fits his
needs best.
30.1.1 Support Status
Currently, the SELinux framework is supported in SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 SP2.
This means that you can expect that SUSE Linux Enterprise is offering all binaries
and libraries you need to be able to use SELinux on your server without any problems. A policy however is not included and you will also miss some binaries that you
might be familiar with from using other Linux distributions. Some of these binaries
are available at http://software.opensuse.org. It is however not a good
idea to install them on your SUSE Linux Enterprise system as they haven’t been tested
and therefore might cause additional problems to the system. Currently, SELinux support is at a fairly early stage on SUSE Linux Enterprise and this means that unexpected behavior may occur. To limit this risk as much as possible, it is a good idea to use
only the binaries that have been provided by default on SLES 11 SP2.
30.1.2 Understanding SELinux
Components
Before starting the configuration of SELinux, you should know a bit about how
SELinux is organized. Three components play a role:
• The security framework in the Linux kernel
• The SELinux libraries and binaries
• The SELinux policy
SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 SP2 and later comes with the standard support for SELinux in the Linux kernel, and the tools that are needed to manage the SELinux solution.
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You will shortly learn how to install these tools on your server. The most important
part of the work of the administrator with regards to SELinux is managing the policy.
In the SELinux policy, security labels are applied to different objects on a Linux server. These objects typically are users, ports, processes and files. Using these security labels, rules are created that define what is and what isn’t allowed on a server. Remember, by default SELinux denies all syscalls and by creating the appropriate rules
you can allow the syscalls that you trust again. Rules should therefore exist for all programs that you want to use on a system. Alternatively, you might want to configure
parts of a system to run in unconfined mode, which means that specific ports, programs, users, files and directories are not protected at all by SELinux. This mode is
useful if you just want to use SELinux to protect some essential services, while you
aren't specifically worried about other services. To get a really secure system, you
should try to avoid this.
To ensure the appropriate protection of your system, you need an SELinux policy.
This must be a tailor-made policy in which all files are provided with a label, and all
services and users have a security label as well to express which files and directories
can be accessed by which user and processed on the server. Developing such a policy
is a tremendous amount of work. In SUSE Linux Enterprise, no policy is available yet.
If you want to use SELinux, you have to take care of creating your own policy.
The complexity of SELinux is also one of the main arguments against using it. Because a typical Linux system is so very complex, it is easy to oversee something and
leave an opening that intruders can abuse to get into your system. And even if it is set
up completely the way it should be, it still is very hard for an administrator to overlook all aspects with SELinux. With regards to the complexity, AppArmor takes a
completely different approach and works with automated procedures that allow the
administrator to set up AppArmor protection and understand exactly what is happening.
In SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 SP2, the SELinux framework is supported and provided. The SELinux policy is not. Therefore, as an administrator that wishes to use
SELinux on SUSE Linux Enterprise, you will have to create your own policy, or use
one of the standard policies that are available for free. Do notice though that a freely
available SELinux policy might work on your server, but it will never offer complete
protection for all aspects of security on your server! Also, SUSE does not support
these open source policies, which is obvious because they haven’t been developed by
SUSE and they do not match SUSE. But in its current state you can use SELinux to
protect SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.
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30.2 The Policy
As mentioned, the policy is the key component in SELinux. It defines rules that specify which objects can access which files, directories, ports and processes on a system. To do this, a security context is defined for all of these. On an SELinux system
where the policy has been applied to label the file system, you can use the ls -Z
command on any directory to find the security context for the files in that directory.
Example 30.1: “Showing security context settings using ls -Z” shows the security context settings for the directories in the / directory of an SLES 11 SP2 system with an
SELinux-labeled file system.
Example 30.1: Showing security context settings using ls -Z
mmi:/ # ls -Z
system_u:object_r:default_t .autorelabel
system_u:object_r:file_t .viminfo
system_u:object_r:bin_t bin
system_u:object_r:boot_t boot
system_u:object_r:device_t dev
system_u:object_r:etc_t etc
system_u:object_r:home_root_t home
system_u:object_r:lib_t lib
system_u:object_r:lib_t lib64
system_u:object_r:lost_found_t lost+found
system_u:object_r:mnt_t media
system_u:object_r:mnt_t mnt
system_u:object_r:usr_t opt
system_u:object_r:proc_t proc
system_u:object_r:default_t root
system_u:object_r:bin_t sbin
system_u:object_r:security_t selinux
system_u:object_r:var_t srv
system_u:object_r:sysfs_t sys
system_u:object_r:tmp_t tmp
system_u:object_r:usr_t usr
system_u:object_r:var_t var
system_u:object_r:httpd_sys_content_t www
The most important line in the security context is the context type. This is the part of
the security context that ends in _t. It tells SELinux which kind of access the object is
allowed. In the policy, rules are specified to define which type of user or which type
of role has access to which type of context. For example, this can happen by using a
rule like the following:
allow user_t bin_t:file {read execute gettattr};
This example rule states that the user who has the context type user_t (this user
is referred to as the source object) is allowed to access the file with the context type
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381
bin_t (the target), using the permissions read, execute and getattr. Later in this article you will learn how to use a standard policy to apply this kind of security context
settings to the file system on your server.
The standard policy that you are going to use contains a huge amount of rules. To
make it more manageable, policies are often applied as modular policies. This allows
the administrator to work with independent modules that allow the administrator to
switch protection on or off for different parts of the system. When compiling the policy for your system, you will have a choice to either work with a modular policy, or
a monolithic policy, where one huge policy is used to protect everything on your system. It is strongly recommended to use a modular policy and not a monolithic policy.
Modular policies are much easier to manage.
30.3 Installing SELinux on SUSE
Linux Enterprise 11 SP2
You can install all SELinux components while performing the installation of your
SUSE Linux Enterprise system, or afterwards. Installation consists of the following
steps:
• Install all SELinux packages
• Enable GRUB boot options
• Install a policy
30.4 Installing SELinux Packages
and modifying GRUB
The easiest way to make sure that all SELinux components are installed is by using
YaST2. The procedure described below shows what to do on an installed SLES 11
SP2 server.
1 Log in to your server as root and start YaST2.
2 Select Software > Software Management
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3 Select View > Patterns and select the entire C/C++ Compiler and Tools software
category for installation.
4 Select View > Search and make sure that Search in Name, Keywords and Summary
are selected. Now enter the keyword selinux and click Search. You now see a list of
packages.
5 Make sure that all the packages you’ve found are selected and click Accept to install
them.
Figure 30.1: Selecting all SELinux Packages in YaST2
After installing the SELinux packages, you have to modify the GRUB boot loader.
To do this, from YaST select System > Boot loader. On the Section Management tab,
you'll now see the current GRUB configuration. Select the label that starts with SUSE
Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2 and click Edit. Now select the line that contains the
Optional Kernel Command Line Parameters and add the following to the end of this
line: security=selinux selinux=1 enforcing=0
These options are used for the following purposes:
security=selinux
This option tells the kernel to use SELinux and not AppArmor
selinux=1
This option switches on SELinux
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enforcing=0
This option puts SELinux in permissive mode. In this mode, SELinux is fully
functional, but doesn’t enforce any of the security settings in the policy. Use this
mode for configuring your system, and once it is fully operational, change it to
enforcing=1 to switch on SELinux protection on your server.
After installing the SELinux packages and enabling the SELinux GRUB boot options,
reboot your server to activate the configuration. You may notice that while rebooting,
an error is displayed mentioning that the policy file could not be loaded. At this point
in the configuration the error is normal and you can safely ignore it. It will disappear
once you have compiled the policy.
30.5 Compiling the Policy
As mentioned, the policy is an essential component of SELinux but no default policy is available for SUSE Linux Enterprise. This means that you’ll need to get a policy from somewhere else. The best choice is to get a policy from the openSUSE download site at http://software.opensuse.org. In the Package Search bar presented at this site, type selinux-policy to get access to a list of all open source
policy packages presented at http://openSUSE.org.
Figure 30.2: Get an open source policy package from http://software.opensuse.org
Don’t click the Direct Install link, but select Show other versions. The current policy packages provided for SLE 11 are in an unstable state, but still they are the
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best available option because they match the layout of the file system on SLE better than the default policy for openSUSE 12.x. Many items have changed in the
openSUSE 12.x file system as compared to the SLE file system, so open the SUSE
SLE-11 SP1 link, accept the unstable package and click Source to download the
policy source file and save it to disk. This gives you a file with the name selin
ux-policy-2.20081210-12.2.src.rpm (the exact name of the file might be
slightly different because of the version number that is included in the filename).
After downloading the source RPM, you can apply the following steps to install it to
your server:
1 Extract the archive from the source RPM, using
rpm2cpio selinux-policy- >version>.src.rpm | cpio -idmv
This gives you a tarball in the current directory, with the name refpoli
cy-version.tar.bz2.
2 Extract the contents of the tarball to the directory /etc/selinux/refpoli
cy. Use
tar xvf refpolicy-version.tar.bz2 -C /etc/selinux
to do this.
3 Make sure that in the directory /etc/selinux there is a file with the name
config that has the following contents:
SELINUX=permissive
SELINUXTYPE=refpolicy
4 Edit the configuration file /etc/selinux/refpolicy/build.conf and
make sure it includes the following parameters:
DISTRO = suse
UNK_PERMS = allow
DIRECT_INITRC = y
MONOLITHIC = n
5 Make sure that you are in the directory /etc/selinux/refpolicy and from
that directory, run the make load command. This command will take a while
to complete.
6 Use the mkinitrd command to re-create the initrd file. This is needed to
guarantee proper booting of the server with the policy.
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7 Once make load has completed, reboot your server.
Before doing anything else, at this point you should use the command semanage
fcontext -a -e /dev /lib/udev/devices. This is to set a context for a
critical directory that is not taken care of by the policy by default.
At this point all prerequisites have been met and you are ready to start file system labeling. To do this, use the command restorecon -Rv /. This command starts
the /sbin/setfiles command to label all files on your system. To do this, the input file /etc/selinux/refpolicy/contexts/files/file_contexts
is used. Because there currently is no SELinux policy for SUSE Linux Enteprise, this
is a delicate part of the configuration. The file_contexts file has to match your
actual file system as much as possible, so if it goes wrong, it is likely to go wrong at
this point. This can lead to a completely unbootable system. If that happens, tune the
contents of the file_contexts file to match the structure of the file system your
server is using. Before doing this, make sure to read the rest of this article so that you
fully understand how context type is applied to files and directories (and don't forget
to make a backup of the file_contexts file before starting). At the end of this
article you'll find tips that help you in troubleshooting SELinux and creating a system
that fully works with your SELinux policy.
Note: if while using semanage you get a message that complains about the user
nobody's home directory, you can change the login shell of user nobody to /sbin/
nologin. This makes sure that the user nobody's settings match the current policy
settings.
After another reboot SELinux should be operational. To verify this, use the command
sestatus -v. It should give you an output that looks like the output in Example 30.2: “After labeling the file system you can verify that SELinux is functional using sestatus -v”.
Example 30.2: After labeling the file system you can verify that SELinux is
functional using sestatus -v
sestatus -v
mmi:/ # sestatus -v
SELinux status:
SELinuxfs mount:
Current mode:
Mode from config file:
Policy version:
Policy from config file:
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enabled
/selinux
permissive
permissive
26
refpolicy
Process contexts:
Current context:
Init context:
/sbin/mingetty
/usr/sbin/sshd
root:staff_r:staff_t
system_u:system_r:init_t
system_u:system_r:sysadm_t
system_u:system_r:sshd_t
File contexts:
Controlling term:
/etc/passwd
/etc/shadow
/bin/bash
/bin/login
/bin/sh
system_u:object_r:shell_exec_t
/sbin/agetty
/sbin/init
/sbin/mingetty
/usr/sbin/sshd
/lib/libc.so.6
system_u:object_r:lib_t
/lib/ld-linux.so.2
system_u:object_r:ld_so_t
root:object_r:user_devpts_t
system_u:object_r:etc_t
system_u:object_r:shadow_t
system_u:object_r:shell_exec_t
system_u:object_r:login_exec_t
system_u:object_r:bin_t ->
system_u:object_r:getty_exec_t
system_u:object_r:init_exec_t
system_u:object_r:getty_exec_t
system_u:object_r:sshd_exec_t
system_u:object_r:lib_t ->
system_u:object_r:lib_t ->
30.6 Configuring SELinux
At this point you have a completely functional SELinux system and it is time to further configure the system. In the current status, SELinux is operational but not in
enforcing mode. This means that it doesn’t limit you in doing anything, it just logs
everything that it should be doing if it were in enforcing mode. This is good, because
based on the log files you can find what it is that it would prevent you from doing. As
a first test, it is a good idea to put SELinux in enforcing mode and find out if you can
still use your server after doing so. To do this, open the /etc/selinux/config
file (or the /boot/grub/menu.lst file) and make sure that the option enforcing=1 is set. Reboot your server and see if it still comes up the way you expect
it to. If it does, leave it like that and start modifying the server in a way that everything works as expected. Chances are though that you won’t even be able to boot the
server properly. If that is the case, switch back to the mode where SELinux is not enforcing and start tuning your server.
30.6.1 Verifying the installation
Before you start tuning your server, it is a good idea to verify the SELinux installation. You have already used the command sestatus -v to view the current mode,
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process, and file contexts. Next, use semanage boolean -l, which shows a
list of all Boolean switches that are available, and at the same time verifies that you
can access the policy. Example 30.3, “Use semanage boolean -l to get a list
of Booleans and verify policy access” (page 388) shows part of the output of this
command.
Example 30.3: Use semanage boolean -l to get a list of Booleans and verify policy
access
mmi:~ # semanage boolean -l
SELinux boolean
Description
ftp_home_dir
-> off
ftp_home_dir
mozilla_read_content
-> off
mozilla_read_content
spamassassin_can_network
-> off
spamassassin_can_network
httpd_can_network_relay
-> off
httpd_can_network_relay
openvpn_enable_homedirs
-> off
openvpn_enable_homedirs
gpg_agent_env_file
-> off
gpg_agent_env_file
allow_httpd_awstats_script_anon_write -> off
allow_httpd_awstats_script_anon_write
httpd_can_network_connect_db
-> off
httpd_can_network_connect_db
allow_user_mysql_connect
-> off
allow_user_mysql_connect
allow_ftpd_full_access
-> off
allow_ftpd_full_access
samba_domain_controller
-> off
samba_domain_controller
httpd_enable_cgi
-> off
httpd_enable_cgi
virt_use_nfs
-> off
virt_use_nfs
Another command that should produce output at this stage is semanage fcontext -l . This command shows the default file context settings as provided by the
policy (see Example 30.4: “Use semanage fcontext -l to get file context information” for partial output of this command).
Example 30.4: Use semanage fcontext -l to get file context information
/var/run/usb(/.*)?
system_u:object_r:hotplug_var_run_t
/var/run/utmp
system_u:object_r:initrc_var_run_t
/var/run/vbe.*
system_u:object_r:hald_var_run_t
/var/run/vmnat.*
system_u:object_r:vmware_var_run_t
/var/run/vmware.*
system_u:object_r:vmware_var_run_t
/var/run/vpnc(/.*)?
system_u:object_r:vpnc_var_run_t
/var/run/watchdog\.pid
system_u:object_r:watchdog_var_run_t
/var/run/winbindd(/.*)?
system_u:object_r:winbind_var_run_t
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all files
regular file
regular file
socket
all files
all files
regular file
all files
/var/run/wnn-unix(/.*)
system_u:object_r:canna_var_run_t
/var/run/wpa_supplicant(/.*)?
system_u:object_r:NetworkManager_var_run_t
/var/run/wpa_supplicant-global
system_u:object_r:NetworkManager_var_run_t
/var/run/xdmctl(/.*)?
system_u:object_r:xdm_var_run_t
/var/run/yiff-[0-9]+\.pid
system_u:object_r:soundd_var_run_t
all files
all files
socket
all files
regular file
30.7 Managing SELinux
Now that the base SELinux configuration is operational, it’s time to start configuring
it in a way that secures your server. Let’s remind ourselfs what SELinux is all about
first. In SELinux, an additional set of rules is used to define exactly which process or
user can access which files, directories, or ports. To do this, SELinux applies a context to every file, directory, process, and port. This context is a security label that defines how this file, directory, process, or port should be treated. These context labels
are used by the SELinux policy, which defines exactly what should be done with the
context labels. By default, the policy blocks all non-default access, which means that,
as an administrator, you have to enable all features that are non-default on your server.
30.7.1 Displaying the Security Context
As mentioned, files, folders, and ports can be labeled. Within each label, different
contexts are used. To be able to perform your daily administration work, the type context is what you’re most interested in. As an administrator, you’ll mostly work with the
type context. Many commands allow you to use the -Z option to show a list of current
context settings. In Example 30.5: “The default context for directories in the root directory” you can see what the context settings are for the directories in the root directory.
Example 30.5: The default context for directories in the root directory
[root@hnl /]# ls
dr-xr-xr-x. root
dr-xr-xr-x. root
drwxr-xr-x. root
drwxr-xr-x+ root
drwxr-xr-x. root
drwxr-xr-x. root
-Z
root
root
root
root
root
root
system_u:object_r:bin_t:s0
bin
system_u:object_r:boot_t:s0
boot
system_u:object_r:cgroup_t:s0
cgroup
unconfined_u:object_r:default_t:s0 data
system_u:object_r:device_t:s0
dev
system_u:object_r:etc_t:s0
etc
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drwxr-xr-x.
dr-xr-xr-x.
dr-xr-xr-x.
drwx------.
drwxr-xr-x.
drwxr-xr-x.
drwxr-xr-x.
drwxr-xr-x.
drwxr-xr-x.
drwxr-xr-x.
drwxr-xr-x.
dr-xr-xr-x.
drwxr-xr-x.
dr-xr-x---.
dr-xr-xr-x.
drwxr-xr-x.
drwxr-xr-x.
-rw-r--r--.
drwxr-xr-x.
drwxrwxrwt.
-rw-r--r--.
-rw-r--r--.
drwxr-xr-x.
drwxr-xr-x.
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
root
system_u:object_r:home_root_t:s0 home
system_u:object_r:lib_t:s0
lib
system_u:object_r:lib_t:s0
lib64
system_u:object_r:lost_found_t:s0 lost+found
system_u:object_r:mnt_t:s0
media
system_u:object_r:autofs_t:s0
misc
system_u:object_r:mnt_t:s0
mnt
unconfined_u:object_r:default_t:s0 mnt2
unconfined_u:object_r:default_t:s0 mounts
system_u:object_r:autofs_t:s0
net
system_u:object_r:usr_t:s0
opt
system_u:object_r:proc_t:s0
proc
unconfined_u:object_r:default_t:s0 repo
system_u:object_r:admin_home_t:s0 root
system_u:object_r:bin_t:s0
sbin
system_u:object_r:security_t:s0 selinux
system_u:object_r:var_t:s0
srv
unconfined_u:object_r:swapfile_t:s0 swapfile
system_u:object_r:sysfs_t:s0
sys
system_u:object_r:tmp_t:s0
tmp
unconfined_u:object_r:etc_runtime_t:s0 tmp2.tar
unconfined_u:object_r:etc_runtime_t:s0 tmp.tar
system_u:object_r:usr_t:s0
usr
system_u:object_r:var_t:s0
var
In the listing above, you can see the complete context for all directories. It consists
of a user, a role, and a type. The s0 setting indicates the security level in Multi Level Security environments. These environments are not discussed in this article, so just
make sure that it is set to s0 and you'll be fine. The Context Type defines what kind
of activity is permitted in the directory. Compare, for example, the /root directory, which has the admin_home_t context type, and the /home directory, which has
the home_root_t context type. In the SELinux policy, different kinds of access are
defined for these context types.
Security labels are not only associated with files, but also with other items, such as
ports and processes. In Example 30.6: “Showing SELinux settings for processes” for
example you can see the context settings for processes on your server.
Example 30.6: Showing SELinux settings for processes
mmi:/ # ps Zaux
LABEL
USER
STAT START
TIME COMMAND
system_u:system_r:init_t
root
Ss
05:31
0:00 init [5]
system_u:system_r:kernel_t
root
S
05:31
0:00 [kthreadd]
system_u:system_r:kernel_t
root
S
05:31
0:00 [ksoftirqd/0]
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PID %CPU %MEM
VSZ
RSS TTY
1
0.0
0.0
10640
808 ?
2
0.0
0.0
0
0 ?
3
0.0
0.0
0
0 ?
system_u:system_r:kernel_t
root
6 0.0 0.0
0
0 ?
S
05:31
0:00 [migration/0]
system_u:system_r:kernel_t
root
7 0.0 0.0
0
0 ?
S
05:31
0:00 [watchdog/0]
system_u:system_r:sysadm_t
root
2344 0.0 0.0 27640
852 ?
Ss
05:32
0:00 /usr/sbin/mcelog --daemon --config-file /etc/mcelog/
mcelog.conf
system_u:system_r:sshd_t
root
3245 0.0 0.0 69300 1492 ?
Ss
05:32
0:00 /usr/sbin/sshd -o PidFile=/var/run/sshd.init.pid
system_u:system_r:cupsd_t
root
3265 0.0 0.0 68176 2852 ?
Ss
05:32
0:00 /usr/sbin/cupsd
system_u:system_r:nscd_t
root
3267 0.0 0.0 772876 1380 ?
Ssl 05:32
0:00 /usr/sbin/nscd
system_u:system_r:postfix_master_t root
3334 0.0 0.0 38320 2424 ?
Ss
05:32
0:00 /usr/lib/postfix/master
system_u:system_r:postfix_qmgr_t postfix 3358 0.0 0.0 40216 2252 ?
S
05:32
0:00 qmgr -l -t fifo -u
system_u:system_r:crond_t
root
3415 0.0 0.0 14900
800 ?
Ss
05:32
0:00 /usr/sbin/cron
system_u:system_r:fsdaemon_t
root
3437 0.0 0.0 16468 1040 ?
S
05:32
0:00 /usr/sbin/smartd
system_u:system_r:sysadm_t
root
3441 0.0 0.0 66916 2152 ?
Ss
05:32
0:00 login -- root
system_u:system_r:sysadm_t
root
3442 0.0 0.0
4596
800 tty2
Ss+ 05:32
0:00 /sbin/mingetty tty2
30.7.2 Selecting the SELinux Mode
In SELinux, three different modes can be used:
Enforcing:
This is the default mode. SELinux protects your server according to the rules in
the policy, and SELinux logs all of its activity to the audit log.
Permissive:
This mode is useful for troubleshooting. If set to Permissive, SELinux does not
protect your server, but it still logs everything that happens to the log files. Also,
in permissive mode, the Linux kernel still maintains the SELinux labels in the file
system. This is good, because this prevents your system from relabeling everything after turning SELinux on again.
Disabled:
This mode is to be deactivated. In disabled mode, SELinux is switched off completely and no logging occurs. The file system labels however are not removed
from the file system.
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You have already read how you can set the current SELinux mode from GRUB while
booting using the enforcing boot parameter.
30.7.3 Modifying SELinux Context Types
An important part of the work of an administrator is setting context types on files to
ensure appropriate working of SELinux.
If a file is created within a specific directory, it inherits the context type of the parent
directory by default. If, however, a file is moved from one location to another location, it retains the context type that it had in the old location.
To set the context type for files, you can use the semanage fcontext command. With this command, you write the new context type to the policy, but it doesn’t
change the actual context type immediately! To apply the context types that are in the
policy, you need to run the restorecon command afterwards.
The challenge when working with semanage fcontext is to find out which context you actually need. You can use semanage fcontext -l to show a list of
all contexts in the policy, but it might be a bit hard to find out the actual context you
need from that list as it is rather long (see Example 30.7: “Showing Displaying default
file contexts with semanage fcontext -l”).
Example 30.7: Showing Displaying default file contexts with semanage fcontext -l
[root@hnl ~]# semanage fcontext -l | less
SELinux fcontext
Context
type
/
directory
system_u:object_r:root_t:s0
/.*
system_u:object_r:default_t:s0
/[^/]+
system_u:object_r:etc_runtime_t:s0
/\.autofsck
system_u:object_r:etc_runtime_t:s0
/\.autorelabel
system_u:object_r:etc_runtime_t:s0
/\.journal
X:>>None>>
/\.suspended
system_u:object_r:etc_runtime_t:s0
/a?quota\.(user|group)
system_u:object_r:quota_db_t:s0
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all files
regular file
regular file
regular file
all files
regular file
regular file
/afs
system_u:object_r:mnt_t:s0
/bin
system_u:object_r:bin_t:s0
/bin/.*
system_u:object_r:bin_t:s0
directory
directory
all files
There are three ways to find out which context settings are available for your services:
• Install the service and look at the default context settings that are used. This is the
easiest and recommended option.
• Consult the man page for the specific service. Some services have a man page that
ends in _selinux, which contains all the information you need to find the correct
context settings.
After finding the specific context setting you need, you just have to apply it using
semanage fcontext. This command takes -t context type as its first argument, followed by the name of the directory or file to which you want to apply the
context settings. To apply the context to everything that already exists in the directory where you want to apply the context, you add the regular expression (/.*)?
to the name of the directory. This means: optionally, match a slash followed by any
character. The examples section of the semanage man page has some useful usage
examples for semanage.
• Use seinfo -t to display a list of all contexts types that are available on your
system, combined with grep to find the context type you need for a specific purpose. The amount of information provided with seinfo -t is a bit overwhelming, about 3,000 contexts type are available by default!
30.7.4 Applying File Contexts
To help you apply the SELinux context properly, the following procedure shows how
to set a context using semanage fcontext and restorecon. You will notice
that at first attempt, the Web server with a non-default document root doesn’t work.
After changing the SELinux context it will
1 Use mkdir /web and then go to that directory using cd /web.
2 Use a text editor to create the file /web/index.html that contains the text
welcome to my Web site.
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3 Open the file /etc/apache2/default-server.conf with an editor,
and change the DocumentRoot line to DocumentRoot /web
4 Start the Apache Web server, using service apache2 start.
5 Use w3m localhost to open a session to your local Web server. You will receive a Connection refused message. Press Enter, and then q to quit w3m.
6 Use ls -Z /srv/www to find the current context type for the default
Apache DocumentRoot, which is /srv/www/htdocs. It should be set to
httpd_sys_content_t.
7 Use semanage fcontext -a -f “”-t httpd_sys_content_t
‘/web(/.*) ?’ to set the new context in the policy and press Enter.
8 Now use restorecon /web to apply the new context type.
9 Use ls -Z /web to show the context of the files in the directory /web.
You’ll see that the new context type has been set properly to the /web directory,
but not to its contents.
10 Use restorecon -R /web to apply the new context recursively to the /
web directory. The type context has now been set correctly.
11 Restart the Web server, using service apache2 restart. You should
now be able to access the contents of the /web directory.
30.7.5 Configuring SELinux Policies
The easiest way to change the behavior of the policy is by working with Booleans.
These are on-off switches that you can use to change the settings in the policy. To
find out which Booleans are available, you can use the semanage boolean -l
command. It will show you a long list of Booleans, with a short description of what
each of these Booleans will do for you. Once you have found the Boolean you want
to set, you can use setsebool -P, followed by the name of the Boolean that you
want to change. It is important to use the -P option at all times when using setsebool.
This option writes the setting to the policy file on disk, and this is the only way to
make sure that the Boolean is applied automatically after a reboot.
The procedure below gives an example of changing Boolean settings
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1 From a root shell, type semanage boolean -l | grep ftp. This shows a
list of Booleans that are related to FTP servers.
2 Use setsebool allow_ftpd_anon_write off to switch off this
Boolean. Notice that it doesn’t take much time to write the change. Use semanage boolean -l|grep ftpd_anon to verify that the Boolean is indeed
turned on.
3 Reboot your server.
4 Check again to see if the allow_ftpd_anon_write Boolean is still turned on.
As it hasn’t yet been written to the policy, you’ll notice that it is off right now.
5 Use setsebool -P allow_ftpd_anon_write on to switch the Boolean
and write the setting to the policy.
30.7.6 Working with SELinux Modules
You have compiled SELinux as modular. This means that the policy that implements
SELinux features is not just one huge policy, but it consists of many smaller modules.
Each module covers a specific part of the SELinux configuration. The concept of the
SELinux module was introduced to make it easier for third party vendors to make
their services compatible with SELinux. To get an overview of the SELinux modules,
you can use the semodule -l command. This command shows a list of all current
modules in use by SELinux and their version numbers.
As an administrator, you can switch modules on or off. This can be useful if you want
to disable only a part of SELinux and not everything to run a specific service without SELinux protection. Especially in the case of SUSE Linux Enterprise, where there
is not a completely supported SELinux policy yet, it can make sense to switch off all
modules that you don’t need so that you can focus on the services that really do need
SELinux protection. To switch off an SELinux module, use semodule -d modulename. If you want to switch it on again, you can use semodule -e modulename. Using this command will change the current state of the module in the /etc/
selinux/refpolicy/policy/modules.conf file. Alternatively, you could
also edit this file by hand.
To handle policy modules properly, it helps to understand what you’re dealing with. In
the end, a policy module is a compiled policy file that you can load using the semodConfiguring SELinux on SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 SP2
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ule -e command. You can recognize these files by the extension they use: *.pp
(which stands for Policy Package). In some cases it can be useful to modify modules
to have them do exactly what you need them to do. Three different kinds of files are
used as input files for policy modules and you can find them in subdirectories of the /
etc/selinux/refpolicy/policy/modules directory:
• *.te files contain transition rules. These rules tell the policy how to deal with specific subprocesses that are started. You won´t often change these as an administrator.
• *.if files define what exactly the policy should be doing. As an administrator you
don´t typically change the contents of these files.
• *.fc files contain the labeling instructions that apply to this policy. As an administrator, you might want to change the contents of the .fc files to modify the default
behavior of policies.
In Example 30.8: “The first 20 lines from the apache.fc file” below you can see
the first 20 lines of the apache.fc file. This is the file that contains the default file
contexts that are used for the Apache server.
Example 30.8: The first 20 lines from the apache.fc file
/etc/apache(2)?(/.*)? gen_context(system_u:object_r:httpd_config_t,s0)
/etc/apache-ssl(2)?(/.*)?
gen_context(system_u:object_r:httpd_config_t,s0)
/etc/htdig(/.*)?
gen_context(system_u:object_r:httpd_sys_content_t,s0)
/etc/httpd -d gen_context(system_u:object_r:httpd_config_t,s0) /etc/
httpd/conf.*
gen_context(system_u:object_r:httpd_config_t,s0) /etc/httpd/logs
gen_context(system_u:object_r:httpd_log_t,s0) /etc/httpd/modules
gen_context(system_u:object_r:httpd_modules_t,s0) /etc/vhosts -gen_context(system_u:object_r:httpd_config_t,s0) /srv/([^/]*/)?
www(/.*)?
gen_context(system_u:object_r:httpd_sys_content_t,s0) /srv/
gallery2(/.*)?
gen_context(system_u:object_r:httpd_sys_content_t,s0) /usr/bin/
htsslpass -gen_context(system_u:object_r:httpd_helper_exec_t,s0) /usr/lib/
apache-ssl/.+ -gen_context(system_u:object_r:httpd_exec_t,s0) /usr/lib/cgi-bin(/.*)?
gen_context(system_u:object_r:httpd_sys_script_exec_t,s0)
/usr/lib(64)?/apache(/.*)?
gen_context(system_u:object_r:httpd_modules_t,s0)
/usr/lib(64)?/apache2/modules(/.*)?
gen_context(system_u:object_r:httpd_modules_t,s0)
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In the fc file, you’ll be able to recognize different elements. First is the name of the
directory or file to which the file context will apply. As you can see, variables can be
used (as is the case in the first line that starts with HOME_DIR), and typically, regular expressions will be used as well. Next, the gen_context command tells the policy
to which context the files related to the policy module should be set. This is the same
context setting that you can see when using ls -Z on the file or directory.
As an administrator, you don’t typically change the contents of the policy files that
come from the SELinux Policy RPM. You would rather use semanage fcontext
to change file contexts. If you are using audit2allow to generate policies for your
server, you might want to change the policy files after all. If you want to change the
contents of any of the policy module files, you’ll need to compile the changes into a
new policy module file. To do this, copy or link the SELinux Makefile from /etc/
selinux/refpolicy to the directory that contains the policy module input files
and run the following command to compile the module:
make && make install && make load
Once the make command has completed, you can manually load the modules into the
system, using semodule -e.
30.8 Troubleshooting SELinux
By default, if SELinux is the reason why something isn’t working, a log message to
this effect is sent to the /var/log/audit/audit.log file. That is, if the auditd service is running. If you see an empty /var/log/audit, start the auditd
service using service auditd start and put it in the runlevels of your system, using insserv auditd. In Example 30.9: “Example lines from /etc/au
dit/audit.log” you can see a partial example of the contents of /var/log/
audit/audit.log
Example 30.9: Example lines from /etc/audit/audit.log
type=DAEMON_START msg=audit(1348173810.874:6248): auditd start,
ver=1.7.7 format=raw kernel=3.0.13-0.27-default auid=0 pid=4235
subj=system_u:system_r:auditd_t res=success
type=AVC msg=audit(1348173901.081:292): avc: denied { write } for
pid=3426 comm="smartd" name="smartmontools" dev=sda6 ino=581743
scontext=system_u:system_r:fsdaemon_t tcontext=system_u:object_r:var_lib_t
tclass=dir
type=AVC msg=audit(1348173901.081:293): avc: denied { remove_name }
for pid=3426 comm="smartd" name="smartd.WDC_WD2500BEKT_75PVMT0WD_WXC1A21E0454.ata.state~" dev=sda6 ino=582390
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scontext=system_u:system_r:fsdaemon_t tcontext=system_u:object_r:var_lib_t
tclass=dir
type=AVC msg=audit(1348173901.081:294): avc: denied { unlink }
for pid=3426 comm="smartd" name="smartd.WDC_WD2500BEKT_75PVMT0WD_WXC1A21E0454.ata.state~" dev=sda6 ino=582390
scontext=system_u:system_r:fsdaemon_t tcontext=system_u:object_r:var_lib_t
tclass=file
type=AVC msg=audit(1348173901.081:295): avc: denied { rename }
for pid=3426 comm="smartd" name="smartd.WDC_WD2500BEKT_75PVMT0WD_WXC1A21E0454.ata.state" dev=sda6 ino=582373
scontext=system_u:system_r:fsdaemon_t tcontext=system_u:object_r:var_lib_t
tclass=file
type=AVC msg=audit(1348173901.081:296): avc: denied { add_name }
for pid=3426 comm="smartd" name="smartd.WDC_WD2500BEKT_75PVMT0WD_WXC1A21E0454.ata.state~" scontext=system_u:system_r:fsdaemon_t
tcontext=system_u:object_r:var_lib_t tclass=dir
type=AVC msg=audit(1348173901.081:297): avc: denied { create }
for pid=3426 comm="smartd" name="smartd.WDC_WD2500BEKT_75PVMT0WD_WXC1A21E0454.ata.state" scontext=system_u:system_r:fsdaemon_t
tcontext=system_u:object_r:var_lib_t tclass=file
type=AVC msg=audit(1348173901.081:298): avc: denied { write open }
for pid=3426 comm="smartd" name="smartd.WDC_WD2500BEKT_75PVMT0WD_WXC1A21E0454.ata.state" dev=sda6 ino=582390
scontext=system_u:system_r:fsdaemon_t tcontext=system_u:object_r:var_lib_t
tclass=file
type=AVC msg=audit(1348173901.081:299): avc: denied { getattr }
for pid=3426 comm="smartd" path="/var/lib/smartmontools/
smartd.WDC_WD2500BEKT_75PVMT0-WD_WXC1A21E0454.ata.state" dev=sda6 ino=582390
scontext=system_u:system_r:fsdaemon_t tcontext=system_u:object_r:var_lib_t
tclass=file
type=AVC msg=audit(1348173901.309:300): avc: denied { append }
for pid=1316 comm="syslog-ng" name="acpid" dev=sda6 ino=582296
scontext=system_u:system_r:syslogd_t tcontext=system_u:object_r:apmd_log_t
tclass=file
At first look, the lines in audit.log are a bit hard to read. However, on closer examination they are not that hard to understand. Every line can be broken down into
some default sections. Let’s have a look at the different sections in the last line:
type=AVC:
every SELinux-related audit log line starts with the type identification
type=AVC
msg=audit(1348173901.309:300):
This is the time stamp, which unfortunately is written in epoch time, the number
of seconds that have passed since Jan 1, 1970. You can use date -d on the part
up to the dot in the epoch time notation to find out when the event has happened:
mmi:~ # date -d @1348173901
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avc: denied { append }:
the specific action that was denied. In this case the system has denied the appending of data to a file. While browsing through the audit log file, you can see other
system actions, such as write open, getattr and more.
for pid=1316:
the process ID of the command or process that initiated the action
comm=”syslog-ng”:
the specific command that was associated with that PID
name=”acpid”:
the name of the subject of the action
dev=sda6 ino=582296:
the block device and inode number of the file that was involved
scontext=system_u:system_r:syslogd_t:
the source context, which is the context of the initiator of the action
tclass=file:
a class identification of the subject
Instead of interpreting the events in audit.log yourself, there is another approach. You
can use the audit2allow command, which helps analyze the cryptic log messages
in /var/log/audit/audit.log. An audit2allow troubleshooting session always consists of three different commands. First, you would use audit2allow -w
-a to present the audit information in a more readable way. The audit2allow -w
-a by default works on the audit.log file. If you want to analyze a specific message in
the audit.log file, copy it to a temporary file and analyze that, using audit2allow
-w -i filename:
Example 30.10: Analyzing audit messages using audit2allow
mmi:/var/log/audit # audit2allow -w -i testfile
type=AVC msg=audit(1348173901.309:300): avc: denied { append } for
pid=1316
comm="syslog-ng" name="acpid" dev=sda6 ino=582296
scontext=system_u:system_r:syslogd_t tcontext=system_u:object_r:apmd_log_t
tclass=file
This was caused by:
Missing type enforcement (TE) allow rule.
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You can use audit2allow to generate a loadable module to allow this access.
To find out which specific rule has denied access, you can use audit2allow -a
to show the enforcing rules from all events that were logged to the audit.log file,
or audit2allow -i filename to show it for messages that you have stored in
a specific file:
Example 30.11: Using audit2allow to see which lines have denied access
mmi:/var/log/audit # audit2allow -i testfile
#============= syslogd_t ==============
allow syslogd_t apmd_log_t:file append;
As the last part, use audit2allow -a -M mymodule to create an SELinux
module with the name mymodule that you can load in order to allow the access that
was previously denied. If you want to do this for all events that have been logged to
the audit.log, use the -a -M command arguments. To do it only for specific messages that are in a specific file, use -i -M as in the example below:
Example 30.12: Use audit2allow to create a policy module that will allow the action
that was previously denied
mmi:/var/log/audit # audit2allow -i testfile -M blah
******************** IMPORTANT ***********************
To make this policy package active, execute:
semodule -i blah.pp
As indicated by the audit2allow command, you can now run this module by
using the semodule -i command, followed by the name of the module that
audit2allow has just created for you.
30.9 Switching to Enforcing Mode
With everything you've done so far, you still cannot switch SELinux to enforcing
mode. This is because of a misconfiguration in the context types for some files. If you
switch to enforcing mode now, you can see that many AVC denied messages are written that are related to the tmpfs, and following these messages your system hangs with
the message ““INIT: Id “1” respawning too fast””.
Example 30.13: The messages that you'll see, just before the system stops, look as
follows:
[ 5.595812] type=1400 audit(1361363803.588:3): avc: denied { read write }
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for pid=431 comm=”sh” name=”console” dev=tmpfs ino=2513
scontext=system_u:system_r:sysadm_t
tcontext=system_u:object_r:tmpfs_t
tclass=chr_file
[ 5.607734] type=1400 audit(1361363803.604:4): avc: denied
{ read write } for
pid=431 comm=”sh” path=”/dev/console” dev=tmpfs ino=2513
scontext=system_u:system_r:sysadm_t
tcontext=system_u:object_r:tmpfs_t
tclass=chr_file
As you will see, this message is repeated several times.
To fix this problem, reboot your computer in permissive mode. Copy the /var/
log/audit/audit.log file to a temporary file (like /var/log/au
dit/audit.2allow) and remove all lines with the exception of the lines that contain the audit log messages for the errors listed above. Assuming that the name of the
log file that you've created is audit.2allow, you should now run the following
command: audit2allow -i audit.2allow -M bootme.
This creates a policy module file with the name bootme.pe. Make sure that
this module is included in your SELinux configuration by using semodule -i
bootme.pp. Now reboot your computer in enforcing mode. You will be able to boot
and log in as root in your SELinux-protected system. If this is not the case, you'll have
to repeat this procedure until you have no more messages in your audit.log that
refer to path=”/dev/console” dev=tmpfs. This may involve several reboots.
From here, the fine tuning begins. You will notice that many items on your system
don't work yet. You'll have to fix them one by one. The approach for fixing all of
these errors is by using audit2allow as described in the above example, and by setting the appropriate context on files and directories on your system. Until a supported version of the SELinux policy is provided with SUSE Linux Enterprise, you'll have
to follow this approach to get it to work. At least using this procedure does allow you
to configure a computer with the very detailed security settings that are offered with
SELinux and will make your system more secure than when using other solutions.
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Part VI. The Linux
Audit Framework
Understanding Linux Audit
31
The Linux audit framework as shipped with this version of SUSE Linux Enterprise
Server provides a CAPP-compliant (Controlled Access Protection Profiles) auditing
system that reliably collects information about any security-relevant event. The audit
records can be examined to determine whether any violation of the security policies
has been committed, and by whom.
Providing an audit framework is an important requirement for a CC-CAPP/EAL
(Common Criteria-Controlled Access Protection Profiles/Evaluation Assurance Level) certification. Common Criteria (CC) for Information Technology Security Information is an international standard for independent security evaluations. Common
Criteria helps customers judge the security level of any IT product they intend to deploy in mission-critical setups.
Common Criteria security evaluations have two sets of evaluation requirements, functional and assurance requirements. Functional requirements describe the security attributes of the product under evaluation and are summarized under the Controlled Access Protection Profiles (CAPP). Assurance requirements are summarized under the
Evaluation Assurance Level (EAL). EAL describes any activities that must take place
for the evaluators to be confident that security attributes are present, effective, and
implemented. Examples for activities of this kind include documenting the developers' search for security vulnerabilities, the patch process, and testing.
This guide provides a basic understanding of how audit works and how it can be set
up. For more information about Common Criteria itself, refer to the Common Criteria Web site [http://www.commoncriteriaportal.org/].
Understanding Linux Audit
405
Linux audit helps make your system more secure by providing you with a means to
analyze what is happening on your system in great detail. It does not, however, provide additional security itself—it does not protect your system from code malfunctions or any kind of exploits. Instead, Audit is useful for tracking these issues and
helps you take additional security measures, like AppArmor, to prevent them.
Audit consists of several components, each contributing crucial functionality to the
overall framework. The audit kernel module intercepts the system calls and records
the relevant events. The auditd daemon writes the audit reports to disk. Various command line utilities take care of displaying, querying, and archiving the audit trail.
Audit enables you to do the following:
Associate Users with Processes
Audit maps processes to the user ID that started them. This makes it possible
for the administrator or security officer to exactly trace which user owns which
process and is potentially doing malicious operations on the system.
IMPORTANT: Renaming User IDs
Audit does not handle the renaming of UIDs. Therefore avoid renaming
UIDs (for example, changing tux from uid=1001 to uid=2000) and
make obsolete UIDs rather than renaming them. Otherwise you would
need to change auditctl data (audit rules) and would have problems retrieving old data correctly.
Review the Audit Trail
Linux audit provides tools that write the audit reports to disk and translate them
into human readable format.
Review Particular Audit Events
Audit provides a utility that allows you to filter the audit reports for certain events
of interest. You can filter for:
• User
• Group
• Audit ID
• Remote Hostname
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• Remote Host Address
• System Call
• System Call Arguments
• File
• File Operations
• Success or Failure
Apply a Selective Audit
Audit provides the means to filter the audit reports for events of interest and also
to tune audit to record only selected events. You can create your own set of rules
and have the audit daemon record only those of interest to you.
Guarantee the Availability of the Report Data
Audit reports are owned by root and therefore only removable by root. Unauthorized users cannot remove the audit logs.
Prevent Audit Data Loss
If the kernel runs out of memory, the audit daemon's backlog is exceeded, or its
rate limit is exceeded, audit can trigger a shutdown of the system to keep events
from escaping audit's control. This shutdown would be an immediate halt of the
system triggered by the audit kernel component without any syncing of the latest
logs to disk. The default configuration is to log a warning to syslog rather than to
halt the system.
If the system runs out of disk space when logging, the audit system can be configured to perform clean shutdown (init 0). The default configuration tells the
audit daemon to stop logging when it runs out of disk space.
31.1 Introducing the Components
of Linux Audit
The following figure illustrates how the various components of audit interact with
each other:
Understanding Linux Audit
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Figure 31.1: Introducing the Components of Linux Audit
auditd.conf
audit.rules
auditctl
audispd
aureport
auditd
audit.log
application
autrace
ausearch
audit
kernel
Straight arrows represent the data flow between components while dashed arrows represent lines of control between components.
auditd
The audit daemon is responsible for writing the audit messages that were generated through the audit kernel interface and triggered by application and system activity to disk. The way the audit daemon is started is controlled by its configuration file, /etc/sysconfig/auditd. The audit system functions (once started) are controlled by /etc/audit/auditd.conf. For more information
about auditd and its configuration, refer to Section 31.2, “Configuring the Audit
Daemon” (page 409).
auditctl
The auditctl utility controls the audit system. It controls the log generation parameters and kernel settings of the audit interface as well as the rule sets that determine which events are tracked. For more information about auditctl, refer to Section 31.3, “Controlling the Audit System Using auditctl” (page 415).
audit rules
The file /etc/audit/audit.rules contains a sequence of auditctl commands that are loaded at system boot time immediately after the audit daemon is
started. For more information about audit rules, refer to Section 31.4, “Passing
Parameters to the Audit System” (page 417).
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aureport
The aureport utility allows you to create custom reports from the audit event log.
This report generation can easily be scripted, and the output can be used by various other applications, for example, to plot these results. For more information
about aureport, refer to Section 31.5, “Understanding the Audit Logs and Generating Reports” (page 421).
ausearch
The ausearch utility can search the audit log file for certain events using various keys or other characteristics of the logged format. For more information
about ausearch, refer to Section 31.6, “Querying the Audit Daemon Logs with
ausearch” (page 432).
audispd
The audit dispatcher daemon (audispd) can be used to relay event notifications to
other applications instead of (or in addition to) writing them to disk in the audit
log. For more information about audispd, refer to Section 31.9, “Relaying Audit
Event Notifications” (page 439).
autrace
The autrace utility traces individual processes in a fashion similar to strace. The
output of autrace is logged to the audit log. For more information about autrace, refer to Section 31.7, “Analyzing Processes with autrace” (page 436).
31.2 Configuring the Audit Daemon
Before you can actually start generating audit logs and processing them, configure the
audit daemon itself. Configure how it is started in the /etc/sysconfig/auditd
configuration file and configure how the audit system functions once the daemon has
been started in /etc/audit/auditd.conf.
The most important configuration parameters in /etc/sysconfig/auditd are:
AUDITD_LANG="en_US"
AUDITD_DISABLE_CONTEXTS="no"
AUDITD_LANG
The locale information used by audit. The default setting is en_US. Setting it to
none would remove all locale information from audit's environment.
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AUDITD_DISABLE_CONTEXTS
Disable system call auditing by default. Set to no for full audit functionality including file and directory watches and system call auditing.
The /etc/audit/auditd.conf configuration file determines how the audit system functions once the daemon has been started. For most use cases, the default settings shipped with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server should suffice. For CAPP environments, most of these parameters need tweaking. The following list briefly introduces
the parameters available:
log_file = /var/log/audit/audit.log
log_format = RAW
log_group = root
priority_boost = 4
flush = INCREMENTAL
freq = 20
num_logs = 4
disp_qos = lossy
dispatcher = /usr/sbin/audispd
name_format = NONE
#name = mydomain
max_log_file = 5
max_log_file_action = ROTATE
space_left = 75
space_left_action = SYSLOG
action_mail_acct = root
admin_space_left = 50
admin_space_left_action = SUSPEND
disk_full_action = SUSPEND
disk_error_action = SUSPEND
#tcp_listen_port =
tcp_listen_queue = 5
#tcp_client_ports = 1024-65535
tcp_client_max_idle = 0
Depending on whether you want your environment to satisfy the requirements of
CAPP, you need to be extra restrictive when configuring the audit daemon. Where
you need to use particular settings to meet the CAPP requirements, a “CAPP Environment” note tells you how to adjust the configuration.
log_file, log_format and log_group
log_file specifies the location where the audit logs should be stored.
log_format determines how the audit information is written to disk and
log_group defines the group that owns the log files. Possible values for
log_format are raw (messages are stored just as the kernel sends them) or
nolog (messages are discarded and not written to disk). The data sent to the
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audit dispatcher is not affected if you use the nolog mode. The default setting is raw and you should keep it if you want to be able to create reports and
queries against the audit logs using the aureport and ausearch tools. The value for
log_group can either be specified literally or by the groups ID.
NOTE: CAPP Environment
In a CAPP environment, have the audit log reside on its own partition.
By doing so, you can be sure that the space detection of the audit daemon is accurate and that you do not have other processes consuming
this space.
priority_boost
Determine how much of a priority boost the audit daemon should get. Possible
values are 0 to 4, with 4 assigning the highest priority. The values given here
translate to negative nice values, as in 3 to -4 to increase the priority.
flush and freq
Specifies whether, how, and how often the audit logs should be written to disk.
Valid values for flush are none, incremental, data, and sync. none
tells the audit daemon not to make any special effort to write the audit data to
disk. incremental tells the audit daemon to explicitly flush the data to disk.
A frequency must be specified if incremental is used. A freq value of 20
tells the audit daemon to request that the kernel flush the data to disk after every
20 records. The data option keeps the data portion of the disk file in sync at all
times while the sync option takes care of both metadata and data.
NOTE: CAPP Environment
In a CAPP environment, make sure that the audit trail is always fully up to
date and complete. Therefore, use sync or data with the flush parameter.
num_logs
Specify the number of log files to keep if you have given rotate as the
max_log_file_action. Possible values range from 0 to 99. A value less
than 2 means that the log files are not rotated at all. As you increase the number
of files to rotate, you increase the amount of work required of the audit daemon.
While doing this rotation, auditd cannot always service new data that is arriving
from the kernel as quickly, which can result in a backlog condition (triggering auUnderstanding Linux Audit
411
ditd to react according to the failure flag, described in Section 31.3, “Controlling
the Audit System Using auditctl” (page 415)). In this situation, increasing the
backlog limit is recommended. Do so by changing the value of the -b parameter
in the /etc/audit/audit.rules file.
disp_qos and dispatcher
The dispatcher is started by the audit daemon during its start. The audit daemon relays the audit messages to the application specified in dispatcher.
This application must be a highly trusted one, because it needs to run as root.
disp_qos determines whether you allow for lossy or lossless communication between the audit daemon and the dispatcher. If you choose lossy,
the audit daemon might discard some audit messages when the message queue is
full. These events still get written to disk if log_format is set to raw, but they
might not get through to the dispatcher. If you choose lossless the audit logging to disk is blocked until there is an empty spot in the message queue. The default value is lossy.
name_format and name
name_format controls how computer names are resolved. Possible values are
none (no name will be used), hostname (value returned by gethostname), fqd
(full qualified hostname as received per DNS lookup), numeric (IP address)
and user. user is a custom string that has to be defined with the name parameter.
max_log_file and max_log_file_action
max_log_file takes a numerical value that specifies the maximum file size
in megabytes that the log file can reach before a configurable action is triggered.
The action to be taken is specified in max_log_file_action. Possible values for max_log_file_action are ignore, syslog, suspend, rotate, and keep_logs. ignore tells the audit daemon to do nothing once the
size limit is reached, syslog tells it to issue a warning and send it to syslog, and
suspend causes the audit daemon to stop writing logs to disk, leaving the daemon itself still alive. rotate triggers log rotation using the num_logs setting.
keep_logs also triggers log rotation, but does not use the num_log setting, so
always keeps all logs.
NOTE: CAPP Environment
To keep a complete audit trail in CAPP environments, the keep_logs
option should be used. If using a separate partition to hold your audit
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logs, adjust max_log_file and num_logs to use the entire space
available on that partition. Note that the more files that have to be rotated,
the longer it takes to get back to receiving audit events.
space_left and space_left_action
space_left takes a numerical value in megabytes of remaining disk space
that triggers a configurable action by the audit daemon. The action is specified in space_left_action. Possible values for this parameter are ignore, syslog, email, exec, suspend, single, and halt. ignore tells
the audit daemon to ignore the warning and do nothing, syslog has it issue a
warning to syslog, and email sends an e-mail to the account specified under
action_mail_acct. exec plus a path to a script executes the given script.
Note that it is not possible to pass parameters to the script. suspend tells the audit daemon to stop writing to disk but remain alive while single triggers the
system to be brought down to single user mode. halt triggers a full shutdown of
the system.
NOTE: CAPP Environment
Make sure that space_left is set to a value that gives the administrator enough time to react to the alert and allows him to free enough
disk space for the audit daemon to continue to work. Freeing disk
space would involve calling aureport -t and archiving the oldest logs on a separate archiving partition or resource. The actual value for space_left depends on the size of your deployment. Set
space_left_action to email.
action_mail_acct
Specify an e-mail address or alias to which any alert messages should be sent. The
default setting is root, but you can enter any local or remote account as long as
e-mail and the network are properly configured on your system and /usr/lib/
sendmail exists.
admin_space_left and admin_space_left_action
admin_space_left takes a numerical value in megabytes of remaining disk
space. The system is already running low on disk space when this limit is reached
and the administrator has one last chance to react to this alert and free disk space
for the audit logs. The value of admin_space_left should be lower than the
value for space_left. The values for admin_space_left_action are
the same as for space_left_action.
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NOTE: CAPP Environment
Set admin_space_left to a value that would just allow the
administrator's actions to be recorded. The action should be set to single.
disk_full_action
Specify which action to take when the system runs out of disk space for the audit
logs. The possible values are the same as for space_left_action.
NOTE: CAPP Environment
As the disk_full_action is triggered when there is absolutely no
more room for any audit logs, you should bring the system down to single-user mode (single) or shut it down completely (halt).
disk_error_action
Specify which action to take when the audit daemon encounters any kind of disk
error while writing the logs to disk or rotating the logs. The possible value are the
same as for space_left_action.
NOTE: CAPP Environment
Use syslog, single, or halt depending on your site's policies regarding the handling of any kind of hardware failure.
tcp_listen_port, tcp_listen_queue, tcp_client_ports and
tcp_client_max_idle
The audit daemon can receive audit events from other audit daemons. The
tcp parameters let you control incoming connections. Specify a port between
1 and 65535 with tcp_listen_port on which the auditd will listen.
tcp_listen_queue lets you configure a maximum value for pending connections. Make sure not to set a value too small, since the number of pending
connections may be high under certain circumstances, such as after a power outage. tcp_client_ports defines which client ports are allowed. Either specify a single port or a port range with numbers separated by a dash (e.g. 1-1023
for all privileged ports). Specifying a single allowed client port may make it difficult for the client to restart their audit subsystem, as it will be unable to recreate a connection with the same host addresses and ports until the connection
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closure TIME_WAIT state times out. If a client does not respond anymore, auditd complains. Specify the number of seconds after which this will happen with
tcp_client_max_idle. Keep in mind that this setting is valid for all clients
and therefore should be higher than any individual client heartbeat setting, preferably by a factor of two.
Once the daemon configuration in /etc/sysconfig/auditd and /etc/au
dit/auditd.conf is complete, the next step is to focus on controlling the amount
of auditing the daemon does, and to assign sufficient resources and limits to the daemon so it can operate smoothly.
31.3 Controlling the Audit System
Using auditctl
auditctl is responsible for controlling the status and some basic system parameters of
the audit daemon. It controls the amount of auditing performed on the system. Using audit rules, auditctl controls which components of your system are subjected to
the audit and to what extent they are audited. Audit rules can be passed to the audit daemon on the auditctl command line as well as by composing a rule set and
instructing the audit daemon to process this file. By default, the rcauditd script
is configured to check for audit rules under /etc/audit/audit.rules. For
more details on audit rules, refer to Section 31.4, “Passing Parameters to the Audit
System” (page 417).
The main auditctl commands to control basic audit system parameters are:
• auditctl -e to enable or disable audit
• auditctl -f to control the failure flag
• auditctl -r to control the rate limit for audit messages
• auditctl -b to control the backlog limit
• auditctl -s to query the current status of the audit daemon
The -e, -f, -r, and -b options can also be specified in the audit.rules file to
avoid having to enter them each time the audit daemon is started.
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415
Any time you query the status of the audit daemon with auditctl -s or change
the status flag with auditctl -eflag, a status message (including information on
each of the above-mentioned parameters) is output. The following example highlights
the typical audit status message.
Example 31.1: Example output of auditctl -s
AUDIT_STATUS: enabled=1 flag=2 pid=3105 rate_limit=0 backlog_limit=8192
lost=0 backlog=0
Table 31.1: Audit Status Flags
416
Flag
Meaning [Possible
Values]
Command
enabled
Set the enable flag.
[0..2] 0=disable, 1=enable, 2=enable and lock
down the configuration
auditctl -e [0|
1]
flag
Set the failure flag.
[0..2] 0=silent,
1=printk, 2=panic (immediate halt without
syncing pending data to
disk)
auditctl -f [0|
1|2]
pid
Process ID under
which auditd is running.
—
rate_limit
Set a limit in messages per second. If the
rate is not zero and is
exceeded, the action
specified in the failure
flag is triggered.
auditctl -r
rate
backlog_limit
Specify the maximum
number of outstanding
audit buffers allowed.
auditctl -b
backlog
Security Guide
Flag
Meaning [Possible
Values]
Command
If all buffers are full,
the action specified in
the failure flag is triggered.
lost
Count the current number of lost audit messages.
—
backlog
Count the current number of outstanding audit
buffers.
—
31.4 Passing Parameters to the
Audit System
Commands to control the audit system can be invoked individually from the shell using auditctl or batch read from a file using auditctl -R. This latter method is
used by the init scripts to load rules from the file /etc/audit/audit.rules after the audit daemon has been started. The rules are executed in order from top to bottom. Each of these rules would expand to a separate auditctl command. The syntax
used in the rules file is the same as that used for the auditctl command.
Changes made to the running audit system by executing auditctl on the command
line are not persistent across system restarts. For changes to persist, add them to the
/etc/audit/audit.rules file and, if they are not currently loaded into audit, restart the audit system to load the modified rule set by using the rcauditd
restart command.
Example 31.2: Example Audit Rules—Audit System Parameters
-b
-f
-r
-e
1000
1
10
1
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Specify the maximum number of outstanding audit buffers. Depending on the
level of logging activity, you might need to adjust the number of buffers to
avoid causing too heavy an audit load on your system.
Specify the failure flag to use. See Table 31.1, “Audit Status
Flags” (page 416) for possible values.
Specify the maximum number of messages per second that may be issued by the
kernel. See Table 31.1, “Audit Status Flags” (page 416) for details.
Enable or disable the audit subsystem.
Using audit, you can track any kind of file system access to important files, configurations or resources. You can add watches on these and assign keys to each kind of
watch for better identification in the logs.
Example 31.3: Example Audit Rules—File System Auditing
-w /etc/shadow
-w /etc -p rx
-w /etc/passwd -k fk_passwd -p rwxa
The -w option tells audit to add a watch to the file specified, in this case /etc/
shadow. All system calls requesting access permissions to this file are analyzed.
This rule adds a watch to the /etc directory and applies permission filtering
for read and execute access to this directory (-p wx). Any system call requesting any of these two permissions is analyzed. Only the creation of new files and
the deletion of existing ones are logged as directory-related events. To get more
specific events for files located under this particular directory, you should add a
separate rule for each file. A file must exist before you add a rule containing a
watch on it. Auditing files as they are created is not supported.
This rule adds a file watch to /etc/passwd. Permission filtering is applied
for read, write, execute, and attribute change permissions. The -k option allows
you to specify a key to use to filter the audit logs for this particular event later
(e.g. with ausearch). You may use the same key on different rules in order to
be able to group rules when searching for them. It is also possible to apply multiple keys to a rule.
System call auditing lets you track your system's behavior on a level even below the
application level. When designing these rules, consider that auditing a great many system calls may increase your system load and cause you to run out of disk space. Consider carefully which events need tracking and how they can be filtered to be even
more specific.
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Example 31.4: Example Audit Rules—System Call Auditing
-a
-a
-a
-a
-a
-a
entry,always -S mkdir
entry,always -S access -F a1=4
exit,always -S ipc -F a0=2
exit,always -S open -F success!=0
task,always -F auid=0
task,always -F uid=0 -F auid=501 -F gid=wheel
This rule activates auditing for the mkdir system call. The -a option adds system call rules. This rule triggers an event whenever the mkdir system call is entered (entry, always). The -S option adds the system call to which this rule
should be applied.
This rule adds auditing to the access system call, but only if the second argument of the system call (mode) is 4 (R_OK). entry,always tells audit to add
an audit context to this system call when entering it and to write out a report as
soon as the call exits.
This rule adds an audit context to the IPC multiplexed system call. The specific
ipc system call is passed as the first syscall argument and can be selected using
-F a0=ipc_call_number.
This rule audits failed attempts to call open.
This rule is an example of a task rule (keyword: task). It is different from the
other rules above in that it applies to processes that are forked or cloned. To filter these kind of events, you can only use fields that are known at fork time,
such as UID, GID, and AUID. This example rule filters for all tasks carrying an
audit ID of 0.
This last rule makes heavy use of filters. All filter options are combined with a
logical AND operator, meaning that this rule applies to all tasks that carry the
audit ID of 501, have changed to run as root, and have wheel as the group.
A process is given an audit ID on user login. This ID is then handed down to any
child process started by the initial process of the user. Even if the user changes
his identity, the audit ID stays the same and allows tracing actions to the original
user.
TIP: Filtering System Call Arguments
For more details on filtering system call arguments, refer to Section 33.6, “Filtering System Call Arguments” (page 462).
You cannot only add rules to the audit system, but also remove them. Delete rules
are used to purge the rule queue of rules that might potentially clash with those you
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419
want to add. There are different methods for deleting the entire rule set at once or for
deleting system call rules or file and directory watches:
Example 31.5: Deleting Audit Rules and Events
-D
-d entry,always -S mkdir
-W /etc
Clear the queue of audit rules and delete any preexisting rules. This rule is used
as the first rule in /etc/audit/audit.rules files to make sure that the
rules that are about to be added do not clash with any preexisting ones. The auditctl -D command is also used before doing an autrace to avoid having the
trace rules clash with any rules present in the audit.rules file.
This rule deletes a system call rule. The -d option must precede any system call
rule that needs to be deleted from the rule queue, and must match exactly.
This rule tells audit to discard the rule with the directory watch on /etc from
the rules queue. This rule deletes any rule containing a directory watch on /
etc, regardless of any permission filtering or key options.
To get an overview of which rules are currently in use in your audit setup, run auditctl -l. This command displays all rules with one rule per line.
Example 31.6: Listing Rules with auditctl -l
LIST_RULES:
LIST_RULES:
LIST_RULES:
LIST_RULES:
LIST_RULES:
LIST_RULES:
LIST_RULES:
exit,always watch=/etc perm=rx
exit,always watch=/etc/passwd perm=rwxa key=fk_passwd
exit,always watch=/etc/shadow perm=rwxa
entry,always syscall=mkdir
entry,always a1=4 (0x4) syscall=access
exit,always a0=2 (0x2) syscall=ipc
exit,always success!=0 syscall=open
NOTE: Creating Filter Rules
You can build very sophisticated audit rules by using the various filter options. Refer to the auditctl(8) man page for more information about the
options available for building audit filter rules, and audit rules in general.
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31.5 Understanding the Audit Logs
and Generating Reports
To understand what the aureport utility does, it is vital to know how the logs generated by the audit daemon are structured, and what exactly is recorded for an event. Only
then can you decide which report types are most appropriate for your needs.
31.5.1 Understanding the Audit Logs
The following examples highlight two typical events that are logged by audit and how
their trails in the audit log are read. The audit log or logs (if log rotation is enabled)
are stored in the /var/log/audit directory. The first example is a simple less
command. The second example covers a great deal of PAM activity in the logs when a
user tries to remotely log in to a machine running audit.
Example 31.7: A Simple Audit Event—Viewing the Audit Log
type=SYSCALL msg=audit(1234874638.599:5207): arch=c000003e syscall=2
success=yes exit=4 a0=62fb60 a1=0 a2=31 a3=0 items=1 ppid=25400 pid
=25616 auid=0 uid=0 gid=0 euid=0 suid=0 fsuid=0 egid=0 sgid=0 fsgid=0
tty=pts1 ses=1164 comm="less" exe="/usr/bin/less" key="doc_log"
type=CWD msg=audit(1234874638.599:5207): cwd="/root"
type=PATH msg=audit(1234874638.599:5207): item=0 name="/var/log/audit/
audit.log" inode=1219041 dev=08:06 mode=0100644 ouid=0 ogid=0 rdev=00:00
The above event, a simple less /var/log/audit/audit.log, wrote three
messages to the log. All of them are closely linked together and you would not be able
to make sense of one of them without the others. The first message reveals the following information:
type
The type of event recorded. In this case, it assigns the SYSCALL type to an event
triggered by a system call (less or rather the underlying open). The CWD event
was recorded to record the current working directory at the time of the syscall. A
PATH event is generated for each path passed to the system call. The open system
call takes only one path argument, so only generates one PATH event. It is important to understand that the PATH event reports the pathname string argument
without any further interpretation, so a relative path requires manual combination
with the path reported by the CWD event to determine the object accessed.
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msg
A message ID enclosed in brackets. The ID splits into two parts. All characters
before the : represent a UNIX epoch time stamp. The number after the colon
represents the actual event ID. All events that are logged from one application's
system call have the same event ID. If the application makes a second system call,
it gets another event ID.
arch
References the CPU architecture of the system call. Decode this information using the -i option on any of your ausearch commands when searching the logs.
syscall
The type of system call as it would have been printed by an strace on this particular system call. This data is taken from the list of system calls under /usr/in
clude/asm/unistd.h and may vary depending on the architecture. In this
case, syscall=2 refers to the open system call (see man open(2)) invoked
by the less application.
success
Whether the system call succeeded or failed.
exit
The exit value returned by the system call. For the open system call used in this
example, this is the file descriptor number. This varies by system call.
a0 to a3
The first four arguments to the system call in numeric form. The values of these
are totally system call dependent. In this example (an open system call), the following are used:
a0=62fb60 a1=0 a2=31 a3=0
a0 is the start address of the passed pathname. a1 is the flags. 8000 in hex
notation translates to 100000 in octal notation, which in turn translates to
O_LARGEFILE. a2 is the mode, which, because O_CREAT was not specified, is
unused. a3 is not passed by the open system call. Check the manual page of the
relevant system call to find out which arguments are used with it.
items
The number of strings passed to the application.
ppid
The process ID of the parent of the process analyzed.
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pid
The process ID of the process analyzed.
auid
The audit ID. A process is given an audit ID on user login. This ID is then handed down to any child process started by the initial process of the user. Even if the
user changes his identity (for example, becomes root), the audit ID stays the
same. Thus you can always trace actions to the original user who logged in.
uid
The user ID of the user who started the process. In this case, 0 for root.
gid
The group ID of the user who started the process. In this case, 0 for root.
euid, suid, fsuid
Effective user ID, set user ID, and file system user ID of the user that started the
process.
egid, sgid, fsgid
Effective group ID, set group ID, and file system group ID of the user that started
the process.
tty
The terminal from which the application is started. In this case, a pseudoterminal
used in an SSH session.
ses
The login session ID. This process attribute is set when a user logs in and can tie
any process to a particular user login.
comm
The application name under which it appears in the task list.
exe
The resolved pathname to the binary program.
subj
auditd records whether the process is subject to any security context, such as AppArmor. unconstrained, as in this case, means that the process is not confined with AppArmor. If the process had been confined, the binary pathname
plus the AppArmor profile mode would have been logged.
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423
key
If you are auditing a large number of directories or files, assign key strings each
of these watches. You can use these keys with ausearch to search the logs for
events of this type only.
The second message triggered by the example less call does not reveal anything
apart from just the current working directory when the less command was executed.
The third message reveals the following (the type and message flags have already
been introduced):
item
In this example, item references the a0 argument—a path—that is associated with the original SYSCALL message. Had the original call had more than one
path argument (such as a cp or mv command), an additional PATH event would
have been logged for the second path argument.
name
Refers to the pathname passed as an argument to the less (or open) call.
inode
Refers to the inode number corresponding to name.
dev
Specifies the device on which the file is stored. In this case, 03:01, which stands
for /dev/sda1 or “first partition on the first IDE device.”
mode
Numerical representation of the file's access permissions. In this case, root has
read and write permissions and his group (root) has read access while the entire
rest of the world cannot access the file at all.
ouid and ogid
Refer to the UID and GID of the inode itself.
rdev
Not applicable for this example. The rdev entry only applies to block or character devices, not to files.
Example 31.8, “An Advanced Audit Event—Login via SSH” (page 425) highlights
the audit events triggered by an incoming SSH connection. Most of the messages are
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related to the PAM stack and reflect the different stages of the SSH PAM process.
Several of the audit messages carry nested PAM messages in them that signify that a
particular stage of the PAM process has been reached. Although the PAM messages
are logged by audit, audit assigns its own message type to each event:
Example 31.8: An Advanced Audit Event—Login via SSH
type=USER_AUTH msg=audit(1234877011.791:7731): user pid=26127 uid=0
auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg='op=PAM:authentication acct="root" exe="/
usr/sbin/sshd"
(hostname=jupiter.example.com, addr=192.168.2.100, terminal=ssh
res=success)'
type=USER_ACCT msg=audit(1234877011.795:7732): user pid=26127 uid=0
auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg='op=PAM:accounting acct="root" exe="/usr/
sbin/sshd"
(hostname=jupiter.example.com, addr=192.168.2.100, terminal=ssh
res=success)'
type=CRED_ACQ msg=audit(1234877011.799:7733): user pid=26125 uid=0
auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg='op=PAM:setcred acct="root" exe="/usr/
sbin/sshd"
(hostname=jupiter.example.com, addr=192.168.2.100, terminal=/dev/pts/0
res=success)'
type=LOGIN msg=audit(1234877011.799:7734): login pid=26125 uid=0
old auid=4294967295 new auid=0 old ses=4294967295 new ses=1172
type=USER_START msg=audit(1234877011.799:7735): user pid=26125 uid=0
auid=0 ses=1172 msg='op=PAM:session_open acct="root" exe="/usr/sbin/sshd"
(hostname=jupiter.example.com, addr=192.168.2.100, terminal=/dev/pts/0
res=success)'
type=USER_LOGIN msg=audit(1234877011.823:7736): user pid=26128 uid=0
auid=0 ses=1172 msg='uid=0: exe="/usr/sbin/sshd"
(hostname=jupiter.example.com, addr=192.168.2.100, terminal=/dev/pts/0
res=success)'
type=CRED_REFR msg=audit(1234877011.828:7737): user pid=26128 uid=0
auid=0 ses=1172 msg='op=PAM:setcred acct="root" exe="/usr/sbin/sshd"
(hostname=jupiter.example.com, addr=192.168.2.100, terminal=/dev/pts/0
res=success)'
PAM reports that is has successfully requested user authentication for root
from a remote host (jupiter.example.com, 192.168.2.100). The terminal where
this is happening is ssh.
PAM reports that it has successfully determined whether the user is authorized
to log in at all.
PAM reports that the appropriate credentials to log in have been acquired and
that the terminal changed to a normal terminal (/dev/pts0).
The user has successfully logged in. This event is the one used by aureport
-l to report about user logins.
PAM reports that it has successfully opened a session for root.
PAM reports that the credentials have been successfully reacquired.
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425
31.5.2 Generating Custom Audit Reports
The raw audit reports stored in the /var/log/audit directory tend to become
very bulky and hard to understand. To find individual events of interest, you might
have to read through thousands of other events before you locate the one that you
want. To avoid this, use the aureport utility and create custom reports.
The following use cases highlight just a few of the possible report types that you can
generate with aureport:
Read Audit Logs from Another File
When the audit logs have moved to another machine or when you want to analyze
the logs of a number of machines on your local machine without wanting to connect to each of these individually, move the logs to a local file and have aureport
analyze them locally:
aureport -if myfile
Summary Report
======================
Range of time in logs: 03/02/09 14:13:38.225 - 17/02/09 14:52:27.971
Selected time for report: 03/02/09 14:13:38 - 17/02/09 14:52:27.971
Number of changes in configuration: 13
Number of changes to accounts, groups, or roles: 0
Number of logins: 6
Number of failed logins: 13
Number of authentications: 7
Number of failed authentications: 573
Number of users: 1
Number of terminals: 9
Number of host names: 4
Number of executables: 17
Number of files: 279
Number of AVC's: 0
Number of MAC events: 0
Number of failed syscalls: 994
Number of anomaly events: 0
Number of responses to anomaly events: 0
Number of crypto events: 0
Number of keys: 2
Number of process IDs: 1211
Number of events: 5320
The above command, aureport without any arguments, provides just the standard general summary report generated from the logs contained in myfile. To
create more detailed reports, combine the -if option with any of the options below. For example, generate a login report that is limited to a certain time frame:
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aureport -l -ts 14:00 -te 15:00 -if myfile
Login Report
============================================
# date time auid host term exe success event
============================================
1. 17/02/09 14:21:09 root: 192.168.2.100 sshd /usr/sbin/sshd no 7718
2. 17/02/09 14:21:15 0 jupiter /dev/pts/3 /usr/sbin/sshd yes 7724
Convert Numeric Entities to Text
Some information, such as user IDs, are printed in numeric form. To convert
these into a human-readable text format, add the -i option to your aureport
command.
Create a Rough Summary Report
If you are just interested in the current audit statistics (events, logins, processes,
etc.), run aureport without any other option.
Create a Summary Report of Failed Events
If you want to break down the overall statistics of plain aureport to the statistics of failed events, use aureport --failed:
aureport --failed
Failed Summary Report
======================
Range of time in logs: 03/02/09 14:13:38.225 - 17/02/09 14:57:35.183
Selected time for report: 03/02/09 14:13:38 - 17/02/09 14:57:35.183
Number of changes in configuration: 0
Number of changes to accounts, groups, or roles: 0
Number of logins: 0
Number of failed logins: 13
Number of authentications: 0
Number of failed authentications: 574
Number of users: 1
Number of terminals: 5
Number of host names: 4
Number of executables: 11
Number of files: 77
Number of AVC's: 0
Number of MAC events: 0
Number of failed syscalls: 994
Number of anomaly events: 0
Number of responses to anomaly events: 0
Number of crypto events: 0
Number of keys: 2
Number of process IDs: 708
Number of events: 1583
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427
Create a Summary Report of Successful Events
If you want to break down the overall statistics of a plain aureport to the statistics of successful events, use aureport --success:
aureport --success
Success Summary Report
======================
Range of time in logs: 03/02/09 14:13:38.225 - 17/02/09 15:00:01.535
Selected time for report: 03/02/09 14:13:38 - 17/02/09 15:00:01.535
Number of changes in configuration: 13
Number of changes to accounts, groups, or roles: 0
Number of logins: 6
Number of failed logins: 0
Number of authentications: 7
Number of failed authentications: 0
Number of users: 1
Number of terminals: 7
Number of host names: 3
Number of executables: 16
Number of files: 215
Number of AVC's: 0
Number of MAC events: 0
Number of failed syscalls: 0
Number of anomaly events: 0
Number of responses to anomaly events: 0
Number of crypto events: 0
Number of keys: 2
Number of process IDs: 558
Number of events: 3739
Create Summary Reports
In addition to the dedicated summary reports (main summary and failed and success summary), use the --summary option with most of the other options to
create summary reports for a particular area of interest only. Not all reports support this option, however. This example creates a summary report for user login
events:
aureport -u -i --summary
User Summary Report
===========================
total auid
===========================
5640 root
13 tux
3 wilber
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Create a Report of Events
To get an overview of the events logged by audit, use the aureport -e command. This command generates a numbered list of all events including date, time,
event number, event type, and audit ID.
aureport -e -ts 14:00 -te 14:21
Event Report
===================================
# date time event type auid success
===================================
1. 17/02/09 14:20:27 7462 DAEMON_START 0 yes
2. 17/02/09 14:20:27 7715 CONFIG_CHANGE 0 yes
3. 17/02/09 14:20:57 7716 USER_END 0 yes
4. 17/02/09 14:20:57 7717 CRED_DISP 0 yes
5. 17/02/09 14:21:09 7718 USER_LOGIN -1 no
6. 17/02/09 14:21:15 7719 USER_AUTH -1 yes
7. 17/02/09 14:21:15 7720 USER_ACCT -1 yes
8. 17/02/09 14:21:15 7721 CRED_ACQ -1 yes
9. 17/02/09 14:21:15 7722 LOGIN 0 yes
10. 17/02/09 14:21:15 7723 USER_START 0 yes
11. 17/02/09 14:21:15 7724 USER_LOGIN 0 yes
12. 17/02/09 14:21:15 7725 CRED_REFR 0 yes
Create a Report from All Process Events
To analyze the log from a process's point of view, use the aureport -p command. This command generates a numbered list of all process events including
date, time, process ID, name of the executable, system call, audit ID, and event
number.
aureport -p
Process ID Report
======================================
# date time pid exe syscall auid event
======================================
1. 13/02/09 15:30:01 32742 /usr/sbin/cron 0 0 35
2. 13/02/09 15:30:01 32742 /usr/sbin/cron 0 0 36
3. 13/02/09 15:38:34 32734 /usr/lib/gdm/gdm-session-worker 0 -1 37
Create a Report from All System Call Events
To analyze the audit log from a system call's point of view, use the aureport
-s command. This command generates a numbered list of all system call events
including date, time, number of the system call, process ID, name of the command that used this call, audit ID, and event number.
aureport -s
Syscall Report
=======================================
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429
# date time syscall pid comm auid event
=======================================
1. 16/02/09 17:45:01 2 20343 cron -1 2279
2. 16/02/09 17:45:02 83 20350 mktemp 0 2284
3. 16/02/09 17:45:02 83 20351 mkdir 0 2285
Create a Report from All Executable Events
To analyze the audit log from an executable's point of view, use the aureport
-x command. This command generates a numbered list of all executable events
including date, time, name of the executable, the terminal it is run in, the host executing it, the audit ID, and event number.
aureport -x
Executable Report
====================================
# date time exe term host auid event
====================================
1. 13/02/09 15:08:26 /usr/sbin/sshd sshd 192.168.2.100 -1 12
2. 13/02/09 15:08:28 /usr/lib/gdm/gdm-session-worker :0 ? -1 13
3. 13/02/09 15:08:28 /usr/sbin/sshd ssh 192.168.2.100 -1 14
Create a Report about Files
To generate a report from the audit log that focuses on file access, use the aureport -f command. This command generates a numbered list of all file-related
events including date, time, name of the accessed file, number of the system call
accessing it, success or failure of the command, the executable accessing the file,
audit ID, and event number.
aureport -f
File Report
===============================================
# date time file syscall success exe auid event
===============================================
1. 16/02/09 17:45:01 /etc/shadow 2 yes /usr/sbin/cron -1 2279
2. 16/02/09 17:45:02 /tmp/ 83 yes /bin/mktemp 0 2284
3. 16/02/09 17:45:02 /var 83 no /bin/mkdir 0 2285
Create a Report about Users
To generate a report from the audit log that illustrates which users are running
what executables on your system, use the aureport -u command. This command generates a numbered list of all user-related events including date, time, audit ID, terminal used, host, name of the executable, and an event ID.
aureport -u
User ID Report
====================================
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# date time auid term host exe event
====================================
1. 13/02/09 15:08:26 -1 sshd 192.168.2.100 /usr/sbin/sshd 12
2. 13/02/09 15:08:28 -1 :0 ? /usr/lib/gdm/gdm-session-worker 13
3. 14/02/09 08:25:39 -1 ssh 192.168.2.101 /usr/sbin/sshd 14
Create a Report about Logins
To create a report that focuses on login attempts to your machine, run the aureport -l command. This command generates a numbered list of all login-related events including date, time, audit ID, host and terminal used, name of the executable, success or failure of the attempt, and an event ID.
aureport -l -i
Login Report
============================================
# date time auid host term exe success event
============================================
1. 13/02/09 15:08:31 tux: 192.168.2.100 sshd /usr/sbin/sshd no 19
2. 16/02/09 12:39:05 root: 192.168.2.101 sshd /usr/sbin/sshd no 2108
3. 17/02/09 15:29:07 geeko: ? tty3 /bin/login yes 7809
Limit a Report to a Certain Time Frame
To analyze the logs for a particular time frame, such as only the working hours
of Feb 16, 2009, first find out whether this data is contained in the the current
audit.log or whether the logs have been rotated in by running aureport t:
aureport -t
Log Time Range Report
=====================
/var/log/audit/audit.log: 03/02/09 14:13:38.225 - 17/02/09 15:30:01.636
The current audit.log contains all the desired data. Otherwise, use the -if
option to point the aureport commands to the log file that contains the needed data.
Then, specify the start date and time and the end date and time of the desired
time frame and combine it with the report option needed. This example focuses
on login attempts:
aureport -ts 02/16/09 8:00 -te 02/16/09 18:00 -l
Login Report
============================================
# date time auid host term exe success event
============================================
1. 16/02/09 12:39:05 root: 192.168.2.100 sshd /usr/sbin/sshd no 2108
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431
2.
3.
4.
5.
16/02/09
16/02/09
16/02/09
16/02/09
12:39:12
13:09:28
13:09:32
13:09:37
0 192.168.2.100 /dev/pts/1 /usr/sbin/sshd yes 2114
root: 192.168.2.100 sshd /usr/sbin/sshd no 2131
root: 192.168.2.100 sshd /usr/sbin/sshd no 2133
0 192.168.2.100 /dev/pts/2 /usr/sbin/sshd yes 2139
The start date and time are specified with the -ts option. Any event that has a
time stamp equal to or after your given start time appears in the report. If you
omit the date, aureport assumes that you meant today. If you omit the time, it
assumes that the start time should be midnight of the date specified. Use the 24
clock notation rather than the 12 hour one and adjust the date format to your locale (specified in /etc/sysconfig/audit under AUDITD_LANG, default
is en_US).
Specify the end date and time with the -te option. Any event that has a time
stamp equal to or before your given event time appears in the report. If you omit
the date, aureport assumes that you meant today. If you omit the time, it assumes that the end time should be now. Use a similar format for the date and time
as for -ts.
All reports except the summary ones are printed in column format and sent to STDOUT, which means that this data can be piped to other commands very easily. The visualization scripts introduced in Section 31.8, “Visualizing Audit Data” (page 436)
are just one example of how to further process the data generated by audit.
31.6 Querying the Audit Daemon
Logs with ausearch
The aureport tool helps you to create overall summaries of what is happening on the
system, but if you are interested in the details of a particular event, ausearch is the
tool to use. ausearch allows you to search the audit logs using special keys and search
phrases that relate to most of the flags that appear in event messages in /var/log/
audit/audit.log. Not all record types contain the same search phrases. There
are no hostname or uid entries in a PATH record, for example. When searching,
make sure that you choose appropriate search criteria to catch all records you need.
On the other hand, you could be searching for a specific type of record and still get
various other related records along with it. This is caused by different parts of the kernel contributing additional records for events that are related to the one to find. For
example, you would always get a PATH record along with the SYSCALL record for an
open system call.
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TIP: Using Multiple Search Options
Any of the command line options can be combined with logical AND operators to narrow down your search.
Read Audit Logs from Another File
When the audit logs have moved to another machine or when you want to analyze
the logs of a number of machines on your local machine without wanting to connect to each of these individually, move the logs to a local file and have ausearch
search them locally:
ausearch -option -if myfile
Convert Numeric Results into Text
Some information, such as user IDs are printed in numeric form. To convert these
into human readable text format, add the -i option to your ausearch command.
Search by Audit Event ID
If you have previously run an audit report or done an autrace, you might want
to analyze the trail of a particular event in the log. Most of the report types
described in Section 31.5, “Understanding the Audit Logs and Generating
Reports” (page 421) include audit event IDs in their output. An audit event ID
is the second part of an audit message ID, which consists of a UNIX epoch time
stamp and the audit event ID separated by a colon. All events that are logged from
one application's system call have the same event ID. Use this event ID with ausearch to retrieve this event's trail from the log.
The autrace tool asks you to review the complete trail of the command traced in
the logs using ausearch. autrace provides you with the complete ausearch command including the audit event ID.
In both cases, use a command similar to the following:
ausearch -a 5207
---time->Tue Feb 17 13:43:58 2009
type=PATH msg=audit(1234874638.599:5207): item=0 name="/var/log/audit/
audit.log" inode=1219041 dev=08:06 mode=0100644 ouid=0 ogid=0 rdev=00:00
type=CWD msg=audit(1234874638.599:5207): cwd="/root"
type=SYSCALL msg=audit(1234874638.599:5207): arch=c000003e syscall=2
success=yes exit=4 a0=62fb60 a1=0 a2=31 a3=0 items=1 ppid=25400
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pid=25616 auid=0 uid=0 gid=0 euid=0 suid=0 fsuid=0 egid=0 sgid=0
fsgid=0 tty=pts1 ses=1164 comm="less" exe="/usr/bin/less" key="doc_log"
The ausearch -a command grabs all records in the logs that are related to the
audit event ID provided and displays them. This option cannot be combined with
any other option.
Search by Message Type
To search for audit records of a particular message type, use the ausearch m message_type command. Examples of valid message types include PATH,
SYSCALL, and USER_LOGIN. Running ausearch -m without a message type
displays a list of all message types.
Search by Login ID
To view records associated with a particular login user ID, use the ausearch ul command. It displays any records related to the user login ID specified provided that user had been able to log in successfully.
Search by User ID
View records related to any of the user IDs (both user ID and effective user ID)
with ausearch -ua. View reports related to a particular user ID with ausearch -ui uid. Search for records related to a particular effective user ID, use
the ausearch -ue euid. Searching for a user ID means the user ID of the
user creating a process. Searching for an effective user ID means the user ID and
privileges that are required to run this process.
Search by Group ID
View records related to any of the group IDs (both group ID and effective group
ID) with the ausearch -ga command. View reports related to a particular
user ID with ausearch -gi gid. Search for records related to a particular
effective group ID, use ausearch -ge egid.
Search by Command Line Name
View records related to a certain command, using the ausearch -c
comm_name command, for example, ausearch -c less for all records related to the less command.
Search by Executable Name
View records related to a certain executable with the ausearch -x exe command, for example ausearch -x /usr/bin/less for all records related
to the /usr/bin/less executable.
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Search by System Call Name
View records related to a certain system call with the ausearch -sc
syscall command, for example, ausearch -sc open for all records related to the open system call.
Search by Process ID
View records related to a certain process ID with the ausearch -p pid
command, for example ausearch -p 13368 for all records related to this
process ID.
Search by Event or System Call Success Value
View records containing a certain system call success value with ausearch sv success_value, for example, ausearch -sv yes for all successful
system calls.
Search by Filename
View records containing a certain filename with ausearch -f filename,
for example, ausearch -f /foo/bar for all records related to the /foo/
bar file. Using the filename alone would work as well, but using relative paths
would not.
Search by Terminal
View records of events related to a certain terminal only with ausearch -tm
term, for example, ausearch -tm ssh to view all records related to events
on the SSH terminal and ausearch -tm tty to view all events
related to the console.
Search by Hostname
View records related to a certain remote hostname with ausearch -hn
hostname, for example, ausearch -hn jupiter.example.com. You
can use a hostname, fully qualified domain name, or numeric network address.
Search by Key Field
View records that contain a certain key assigned in the audit rule set to identify
events of a particular type. Use the ausearch -k key_field, for example,
ausearch -k CFG_etc to display any records containing the CFG_etc key.
Search by Word
View records that contain a certain string assigned in the audit rule set to identify events of a particular type. The whole string will be matched on filename, hostname, and terminal. Use the ausearch -w word.
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435
Limit a Search to a Certain Time Frame
Use -ts and -te to limit the scope of your searches to a certain time frame. The
-ts option is used to specify the start date and time and the -te option is used
to specify the end date and time. These options can be combined with any of the
above, except the -a option. The use of these options is similar to use with aureport.
31.7 Analyzing Processes with
autrace
In addition to monitoring your system using the rules you set up, you can also perform
dedicated audits of individual processes using the autrace command. autrace works
similarly to the strace command, but gathers slightly different information. The
output of autrace is written to /var/log/audit/audit.log and does not look
any different from the standard audit log entries.
When performing an autrace on a process, make sure that any audit rules are purged
from the queue to avoid these rules clashing with the ones autrace adds itself. Delete
the audit rules with the auditctl -D command. This stops all normal auditing.
auditctl -D
No rules
autrace /usr/bin/less /etc/sysconfig/auditd
Waiting to execute: /usr/bin/less
Cleaning up...
No rules
Trace complete. You can locate the records with 'ausearch -i -p 7642'
Always use the full path to the executable to track with autrace. After the trace is
complete, autrace provides the event ID of the trace, so you can analyze the entire data trail with ausearch. To restore the audit system to use the audit rule set again, just
restart the audit daemon with rcauditd restart.
31.8 Visualizing Audit Data
Neither the data trail in /var/log/audit/audit.log nor the different report
types generated by aureport, described in Section 31.5.2, “Generating Custom Audit
Reports” (page 426), provide an intuitive reading experience to the user. The aure436
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port output is formatted in columns and thus easily available to any sed, perl, or awk
scripts that users might connect to the audit framework to visualize the audit data.
The visualization scripts (see Section 32.6, “Configuring Log
Visualization” (page 452) are one example of how to use standard Linux tools
available with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server or any other Linux distribution to create
easy-to-read audit output. The following examples help you understand how the plain
audit reports can be transformed into human readable graphics.
The first example illustrates the relationship of programs and system calls. To get to
this kind of data, you need to determine the appropriate aureport command that
delivers the source data from which to generate the final graphic:
aureport -s -i
Syscall Report
=======================================
# date time syscall pid comm auid event
=======================================
1. 16/02/09 17:45:01 open 20343 cron unset 2279
2. 16/02/09 17:45:02 mkdir 20350 mktemp root 2284
3. 16/02/09 17:45:02 mkdir 20351 mkdir root 2285
...
The first thing that the visualization script needs to do on this report is to extract only those columns that are of interest, in this example, the syscall and the comm
columns. The output is sorted and duplicates removed then the final output is piped
into the visualization program itself:
LC_ALL=C aureport -s -i | awk '/^[0-9]/ { print $6" "$4 }' | sort | uniq |
mkgraph
NOTE: Adjusting the Locale
Depending on your choice of locale in /etc/sysconfig/auditd, your
aureport output might contain an additional data column for AM/PM on time
stamps. To avoid having this confuse your scripts, precede your script calls
with LC_ALL=C to reset the locale and use the 24 hour time format.
Figure 31.2: Flow Graph—Program versus System Call Relationship
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437
The second example illustrates the different types of events and how many of each
type have been logged. The appropriate aureport command to extract this kind of
information is aureport -e:
aureport -e -i --summary
Event Summary Report
======================
total type
======================
2434 SYSCALL
816 USER_START
816 USER_ACCT
814 CRED_ACQ
810 LOGIN
806 CRED_DISP
779 USER_END
99 CONFIG_CHANGE
52 USER_LOGIN
Because this type of report already contains a two column output, it is just fed into the
the visualization script and transformed into a bar chart.
aureport -e -i --summary
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| mkbar events
Figure 31.3: Bar Chart—Common Event Types
For background information about the visualization of audit data, refer to the Web
site of the audit project at http://people.redhat.com/sgrubb/au
dit/visualize/index.html.
31.9 Relaying Audit Event
Notifications
The auditing system also allows external applications to access and make use of the
auditd daemon in real time. This feature is provided by so called audit dispatcher
which allows, for example, intrusion detection systems to use the auditd daemon to receive enhanced detection information.
audispd is a daemon which controls the audit dispatcher. It is normally started by the
auditd daemon. The audispd daemon takes audit events and distributes them to the
Understanding Linux Audit
439
programs which want to analyze them in real time. Configuration of the auditd daemon is stored in /etc/audisp/audispd.conf. The file has the following options:
q_depth
Specifies the size of the event dispatcher internal queue. If syslog complains
about audit events getting dropped, increase this value. Default is 80.
overflow_action
Specifies the way the audit daemon will react to the internal queue overflow. Possible values are ignore (nothing happens), syslog (issues a warning to syslog), suspend (audispd will stop processing events), single (the computer
system will be put in single user mode), or halt (shuts the system down).
priority_boost
Specifies the priority for the audit event dispatcher (in addition to the audit daemon priority itself). Default is 4 which means no change in priority.
name_format
Specifies the way the computer node name is inserted into the audit event. Possible values are none (no computer name is inserted), hostname (name returned by the gethostname system call), fqd (fully qualified domain name of the
machine), numeric (IP address of the machine), or user (user defined string
from the name option). Default is none.
name
Specifies a user defined string which identifies the machine. The
name_format option must be set to user, otherwise this option is ignored.
Example 31.9: Example /etc/audisp/audispd.conf
q_depth = 80
overflow_action = SYSLOG
priority_boost = 4
name_format = HOSTNAME
#name = mydomain
The plug-in programs install their configuration files in a special directory dedicated
to audispd plug-ins. It is /etc/audisp/plugins.d by default. The plug-in configuration files have the following options:
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active
Specifies if the program will make use of audispd. Possible values are yes or
no.
direction
Specifies the way the plug-in was designed to communicate with audit. It informs
the event dispatcher in which directions the events flow. Possible values are in or
out.
path
Specifies the absolute path to the plug-in executable. In case of internal plug-ins,
this option specifies the plug-in name.
type
Specifies the way the plug-in is to be run. Possible values are builtin or always. Use builtin for internal plug-ins (af_unix and syslog) and always for most (if not all) other plug-ins. Default is always.
args
Specifies the argument that is passed to the plug-in program. Normally, plug-in
programs read their arguments from their configuration file and do not need to
receive any arguments. There is a limit of 2 arguments.
format
Specifies the format of data that the audit dispatcher passes to the plug-in program. Valid options are binary or string. binary passes the data exactly as
the event dispatcher receives them from the audit daemon. string instructs the
dispatcher to change the event into a string that is parsable by the audit parsing library. Default is string.
Example 31.10: Example /etc/audisp/plugins.d/syslog.conf
active = no
direction = out
path = builtin_syslog
type = builtin
args = LOG_INFO
format = string
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441
Setting Up the Linux Audit
Framework
32
This chapter shows how to set up a simple audit scenario. Every step involved in configuring and enabling audit is explained in detail. After you have learned to set up audit, consider a real-world example scenario in Chapter 33, Introducing an Audit Rule
Set (page 455).
To set up audit on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, you need to complete the following
steps:
Procedure 32.1: Setting Up the Linux Audit Framework
1 Make sure that all required packages are installed: audit, audit-libs, and optionally audit-libs-python. To use the log visualization as described in Section 32.6, “Configuring Log Visualization” (page 452), install gnuplot and
graphviz from the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server media.
2 Determine the components to audit. Refer to Section 32.1, “Determining the Components to Audit” (page 444) for details.
3 Check or modify the basic audit daemon configuration. Refer to Section 32.2,
“Configuring the Audit Daemon” (page 445) for details.
4 Enable auditing for system calls. Refer to Section 32.3, “Enabling Audit for System Calls” (page 446) for details.
5 Compose audit rules to suit your scenario. Refer to Section 32.4, “Setting Up Audit
Rules” (page 447) for details.
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443
6 Generate logs and configure tailor-made reports. Refer to Section 32.5, “Configuring Audit Reports” (page 449) for details.
7 Configure optional log visualization. Refer to Section 32.6, “Configuring Log
Visualization” (page 452) for details.
IMPORTANT: Controlling the Audit Daemon
Before configuring any of the components of the audit system, make sure
that the audit daemon is not running by entering rcauditd status as
root. On a default SUSE Linux Enterprise Server system, audit is started on
boot, so you need to turn it off by entering rcauditd stop. Start the daemon after configuring it with rcauditd start.
32.1 Determining the Components
to Audit
Before starting to create your own audit configuration, determine to which degree you
want to use it. Check the following general rules to determine which use case best applies to you and your requirements:
• If you require a full security audit for CAPP/EAL certification, enable full audit for system calls and configure watches on various configuration files and
directories, similar to the rule set featured in Chapter 33, Introducing an Audit Rule Set (page 455). Proceed to Section 32.3, “Enabling Audit for System
Calls” (page 446).
• If you require an occasional audit of a system call instead of a permanent audit for
system calls, use autrace. Proceed to Section 32.3, “Enabling Audit for System
Calls” (page 446).
• If you require file and directory watches to track access to important or security-sensitive data, create a rule set matching these requirements. Enable audit as described in Section 32.3, “Enabling Audit for System Calls” (page 446) and proceed to Section 32.4, “Setting Up Audit Rules” (page 447).
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32.2 Configuring the Audit Daemon
The basic setup of the audit daemon is done by editing /etc/au
dit/auditd.conf. You may also use YaST to configure the basic settings by calling YaST > Security and Users > Linux Audit Framework (LAF). Use the tabs Log File
and Disk Space for configuration.
log_file = /var/log/audit/audit.log
log_format = RAW
log_group = root
priority_boost = 4
flush = INCREMENTAL
freq = 20
num_logs = 4
disp_qos = lossy
dispatcher = /sbin/audispd
name_format = NONE
#name = mydomain
max_log_file = 5
max_log_file_action = ROTATE
space_left = 75
space_left_action = SYSLOG
action_mail_acct = root
admin_space_left = 50
admin_space_left_action = SUSPEND
disk_full_action = SUSPEND
disk_error_action = SUSPEND
#tcp_listen_port =
tcp_listen_queue = 5
#tcp_client_ports = 1024-65535
tcp_client_max_idle = 0
The default settings work reasonably well for many setups. Some values, such
as num_logs, max_log_file, space_left, and admin_space_left
depend on the size of your deployment. If disk space is limited, you might want
to reduce the number of log files to keep if they are rotated and you might
want get an earlier warning if disk space is running out. For a CAPP-compliant setup, adjust the values for log_file, flush, max_log_file,
max_log_file_action, space_left, space_left_action,
admin_space_left, admin_space_left_action, disk_full_action,
and disk_error_action, as described in Section 31.2, “Configuring the Audit
Daemon” (page 409). An example CAPP-compliant configuration looks like this:
log_file = path_to_separate_partition/audit.log
log_format = RAW
priority_boost = 4
flush = SYNC
### or DATA
freq = 20
Setting Up the Linux Audit Framework
445
num_logs = 4
dispatcher = /sbin/audispd
disp_qos = lossy
max_log_file = 5
max_log_file_action = KEEP_LOGS
space_left = 75
space_left_action = EMAIL
action_mail_acct = root
admin_space_left = 50
admin_space_left_action = SINGLE
disk_full_action = SUSPEND
disk_error_action = SUSPEND
### or HALT
### or HALT
### or HALT
The ### precedes comments where you can choose from several options. Do not add
the comments to your actual configuration files.
TIP: For More Information
Refer to Section 31.2, “Configuring the Audit Daemon” (page 409) for detailed background information about the auditd.conf configuration parameters.
32.3 Enabling Audit for System
Calls
A standard SUSE Linux Enterprise Server system has auditd running by default.
There are different levels of auditing activity available:
Basic Logging
Out of the box (without any further configuration) auditd logs only events concerning its own configuration changes to /var/log/audit/audit.log.
No events (file access, system call, etc.) are generated by the kernel audit component until requested by auditctl. However, other kernel components and modules
may log audit events outside of the control of auditctl and these appear in the audit log. By default, the only module that generates audit events is AppArmor.
Advanced Logging with System Call Auditing
To audit system calls and get meaningful file watches, you need to enable audit
contexts for system calls.
As you need system call auditing capabilities even when you are configuring plain file
or directory watches, you need to enable audit contexts for system calls. To enable au446
Security Guide
dit contexts for the duration of the current session only, execute auditctl -e 1
as root. To disable this feature, execute auditctl -e 0 as root.
To enable audit contexts for system calls permanently, open the /etc/syscon
fig/auditd configuration file as root and set AUDITD_DISABLE_CONTEXTS
to no. Then restart the audit daemon with the rcauditd restart command. To
turn this feature off temporarily, use auditctl -e 0. To turn it off permanently,
set AUDITD_DISABLE_CONTEXTS to yes.
32.4 Setting Up Audit Rules
Using audit rules, determine which aspects of the system should be analyzed by audit.
Normally this includes important databases and security-relevant configuration files.
You may also analyze various system calls in detail if a broad analysis of your system
is required. A very detailed example configuration that includes most of the rules that
are needed in a CAPP compliant environment is available in Chapter 33, Introducing
an Audit Rule Set (page 455).
Audit rules can be passed to the audit daemon on the auditctl command line
as well as by composing a rule set in /etc/audit/audit.rules which
is processed whenever the audit daemon is started. To customize /etc/au
dit/audit.rules either edit it directly, or use YaST: Security and Users > Linux
Audit Framework (LAF) > Rules for 'auditctl'. Rules passed on the command line are
not persistent and have to be re-entered when the audit daemon is restarted.
A simple rule set for very basic auditing on a few important files and directories could
look like this:
# basic audit system parameters
-D
-b 8192
-f 1
-e 1
# some file and directory watches with keys
-w /var/log/audit/ -k LOG_audit
-w /etc/audit/auditd.conf -k CFG_audit_conf -p rxwa
-w /etc/audit.rules -k CFG_audit_rules -p rxwa
-w /etc/passwd -k CFG_passwd -p rwxa
-w /etc/sysconfig/ -k CFG_sysconfig
# an example system call rule
-a entry,always -S umask
Setting Up the Linux Audit Framework
447
### add your own rules
When configuring the basic audit system parameters (such as the backlog parameter b) test these settings with your intended audit rule set to determine whether the backlog size is appropriate for the level of logging activity caused by your audit rule set. If
your chosen backlog size is too small, your system might not be able to handle the audit load and consult the failure flag (-f) when the backlog limit is exceeded.
IMPORTANT: Choosing the Failure Flag
When choosing the failure flag, note that -f 2 tells your system to perform
an immediate shutdown without flushing any pending data to disk when the
limits of your audit system are exceeded. Because this shutdown is not a
clean shutdown, restrict the use of -f 2 to only the most security-conscious
environments and use -f 1 (system continues to run, issues a warning and
audit stops) for any other setup to avoid loss of data or data corruption.
Directory watches produce less verbose output than separate file watches for the files
under these directories. To get detailed logging for your system configuration in /
etc/sysconfig, for example, add watches for each individual file. Audit does not
support globbing, which means you cannot just create a rule that says -w /etc/*
and watches anything below /etc.
For better identification in the log file, a key has been added to each of the file and
directory watches. Using the key, it is easier to comb the logs for events related to a
certain rule. When creating keys, distinguish between mere log file watches and configuration file watches by using an appropriate prefix with the key, in this case LOG
for a log file watch and CFG for a configuration file watch. Using the filename as part
of the key also makes it easier for you to identify events of this type in the log file.
Another thing to bear in mind when creating file and directory watches is that audit cannot deal with files that do not exist when the rules are created. Any file that is
added to your system while audit is already running is not watched unless you extend
the rule set to watch this new file.
For more information about creating custom rules, refer to Section 31.4, “Passing Parameters to the Audit System” (page 417).
IMPORTANT: Changing Audit Rules
After you change audit rules, always restart the audit daemon with rcauditd restart to reread the changed rules.
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32.5 Configuring Audit Reports
To avoid having to dig through the raw audit logs to get an impression of what your
system is currently doing, run custom audit reports at certain intervals. Custom audit
reports enable you to focus on areas of interest and get meaningful statistics on the nature and frequency of the events you are monitoring. To analyze individual events in
detail, use the ausearch tool.
Before setting up audit reporting, consider the following:
• What types of events do you want to monitor by generating regular reports? Select
the appropriate aureport command lines as described in Section 31.5.2, “Generating
Custom Audit Reports” (page 426).
• What do you want to do with the audit reports? Decide whether to create graphical charts from the data accumulated or whether it should be transferred into
any sort of spreadsheet or database. Set up the aureport command line and further processing similar to the examples shown in Section 32.6, “Configuring Log
Visualization” (page 452) if you want to visualize your reports.
• When and at which intervals should the reports run? Set up appropriate automated
reporting using cron.
For this example, assume that you are interested in finding out about any attempts
to access your audit, PAM, and system configuration. Proceed as follows to find out
about file events on your system:
1 Generate a full summary report of all events and check for any anomalies in the
summary report, for example, have a look at the “failed syscalls” record, because
these might have failed due to insufficient permissions to access a file or a file not
being there at all:
aureport
Summary Report
======================
Range of time in logs: 03/02/09 14:13:38.225 - 17/02/09 16:30:10.352
Selected time for report: 03/02/09 14:13:38 - 17/02/09 16:30:10.352
Number of changes in configuration: 24
Number of changes to accounts, groups, or roles: 0
Number of logins: 9
Number of failed logins: 15
Number of authentications: 19
Number of failed authentications: 578
Setting Up the Linux Audit Framework
449
Number
Number
Number
Number
Number
Number
Number
Number
Number
Number
Number
Number
Number
Number
of
of
of
of
of
of
of
of
of
of
of
of
of
of
users: 3
terminals: 15
host names: 4
executables: 20
files: 279
AVC's: 0
MAC events: 0
failed syscalls: 994
anomaly events: 0
responses to anomaly events: 0
crypto events: 0
keys: 2
process IDs: 1238
events: 5435
2 Run a summary report for failed events and check the “files” record for the number of failed file access events:
aureport --failed
Failed Summary Report
======================
Range of time in logs: 03/02/09 14:13:38.225 - 17/02/09 16:30:10.352
Selected time for report: 03/02/09 14:13:38 - 17/02/09 16:30:10.352
Number of changes in configuration: 0
Number of changes to accounts, groups, or roles: 0
Number of logins: 0
Number of failed logins: 15
Number of authentications: 0
Number of failed authentications: 578
Number of users: 1
Number of terminals: 7
Number of host names: 4
Number of executables: 12
Number of files: 77
Number of AVC's: 0
Number of MAC events: 0
Number of failed syscalls: 994
Number of anomaly events: 0
Number of responses to anomaly events: 0
Number of crypto events: 0
Number of keys: 2
Number of process IDs: 713
Number of events: 1589
3 To list the files that could not be accessed, run a summary report of failed file
events:
aureport -f -i --failed --summary
Failed File Summary Report
===========================
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total file
===========================
80 /var
80 spool
80 cron
80 lastrun
46 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.UTF-8/LC_CTYPE
45 /usr/lib/locale/locale-archive
38 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.UTF-8/LC_IDENTIFICATION
38 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.UTF-8/LC_MEASUREMENT
38 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.UTF-8/LC_TELEPHONE
38 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.UTF-8/LC_ADDRESS
38 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.UTF-8/LC_NAME
38 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.UTF-8/LC_PAPER
38 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.UTF-8/LC_MESSAGES
38 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.UTF-8/LC_MONETARY
38 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.UTF-8/LC_COLLATE
38 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.UTF-8/LC_TIME
38 /usr/lib/locale/en_GB.UTF-8/LC_NUMERIC
8 /etc/magic.mgc
...
To focus this summary report on a few files or directories of interest only, such as
/etc/audit/auditd.conf, /etc/pam.d, and /etc/sysconfig, use a
command similar to the following:
aureport -f -i --failed --summary |grep -e "/etc/audit/auditd.conf" -e "/
etc/pam.d/" -e "/etc/sysconfig"
1
/etc/sysconfig/displaymanager
4 From the summary report, then proceed to isolate these items of interest from the
log and find out their event IDs for further analysis:
aureport -f -i --failed |grep -e "/etc/audit/auditd.conf" -e "/etc/
pam.d/" -e "/etc/sysconfig"
993. 17/02/09 16:47:34 /etc/sysconfig/displaymanager readlink no /bin/
vim-normal root 7887
994. 17/02/09 16:48:23 /etc/sysconfig/displaymanager getxattr no /bin/
vim-normal root 7889
5 Use the event ID to get a detailed record for each item of interest:
ausearch -a 7887 -i
---time->Tue Feb 17 16:48:23 2009
type=PATH msg=audit(1234885703.090:7889): item=0 name="/etc/sysconfig/
displaymanager" inode=369282 dev=08:06 mode=0100644 ouid=0 ogid=0
rdev=00:00
type=CWD msg=audit(1234885703.090:7889): cwd="/root"
Setting Up the Linux Audit Framework
451
type=SYSCALL msg=audit(1234885703.090:7889): arch=c000003e syscall=191
success=no exit=-61 a0=7e1e20 a1=7f90e4cf9187 a2=7fffed5b57d0 a3=84
items=1 ppid=25548 pid=23045 auid=0 uid=0 gid=0 euid=0 suid=0 fsuid=0
egid=0 sgid=0 fsgid=0 tty=pts2 ses=1166 comm="vim" exe="/bin/vim-normal"
key=(null)
TIP: Focusing on a Certain Time Frame
If you are interested in events during a particular period of time, trim down
the reports by using start and end dates and times with your aureport commands (-ts and -te). For more information, refer to Section 31.5.2, “Generating Custom Audit Reports” (page 426).
All steps (except for the last one) can be run automatically and would easily be scriptable and configured as cron jobs. Any of the --failed --summary reports could
be transformed easily into a bar chart that plots files versus failed access attempts. For
more information about visualizing audit report data, refer to Section 32.6, “Configuring Log Visualization” (page 452).
32.6 Configuring Log Visualization
Using the scripts mkbar and mkgraph you can illustrate your audit statistics with
various graphs and charts. As with any other aureport command, the plotting commands are scriptable and can easily be configured to run as cron jobs.
mkbar and mkgraph were created by Steve Grubb at Red Hat. They are available
from http://people.redhat.com/sgrubb/audit/visualize/. Because the current version of audit in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server does not ship with
these scripts, proceed as follows to make them available on your system:
1 Download the scripts to root's ~/bin directory:
wget http://people.redhat.com/sgrubb/audit/visualize/mkbar -O ~/bin/mkbar
wget http://people.redhat.com/sgrubb/audit/visualize/mkgraph -O ~/bin/
mkgraph
2 Adjust the file permissions to read, write, and execute for root:
chmod 744 ~/bin/mk{bar,graph}
To plot summary reports, such as the ones discussed in Section 32.5, “Configuring
Audit Reports” (page 449), use the script mkbar. Some example commands could
look like the following:
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Create a Summary of Events
aureport -e -i --summary | mkbar events
Create a Summary of File Events
aureport -f -i --summary | mkbar files
Create a Summary of Login Events
aureport -l -i --summary | mkbar login
Create a Summary of User Events
aureport -u -i --summary | mkbar users
Create a Summary of System Call Events
aureport -s -i --summary | mkbar syscalls
To create a summary chart of failed events of any of the above event types, just add
the --failed option to the respective aureport command. To cover a certain period of time only, use the -ts and -te options on aureport. Any of these commands
can be tweaked further by narrowing down its scope using grep or egrep and regular
expressions. See the comments in the mkbar script for an example. Any of the above
commands produces a PNG file containing a bar chart of the requested data.
To illustrate the relationship between different kinds of audit objects, such as users
and system calls, use the script mkgraph. Some example commands could look like
the following:
Users versus Executables
LC_ALL=C aureport -u -i | awk '/^[0-9]/ { print $4" "$7 }' | sort | uniq
| mkgraph users_vs_exec
Users versus Files
LC_ALL=C aureport -f -i | awk '/^[0-9]/ { print $8" "$4 }' | sort | uniq
| mkgraph users_vs_files
System Calls versus Commands
LC_ALL=C aureport -s -i | awk '/^[0-9]/ { print $4" "$6 }' | sort | uniq
| mkgraph syscall_vs_com
System Calls versus Files
LC_ALL=C aureport -s -i | awk '/^[0-9]/ { print $5" "$4 }' | sort | uniq
| mkgraph | syscall_vs_file
Setting Up the Linux Audit Framework
453
Graphs can also be combined to illustrate complex relationships. See the comments in
the mkgraph script for further information and an example. The graphs produced by
this script are created in PostScript format by default, but you can change the output
format by changing the EXT variable in the script from ps to png or jpg. To cover a
certain period of time only, use the -ts and -te options on aureport.
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Introducing an Audit Rule
Set
The following example configuration illustrates how audit can be used to monitor
your system. It highlights the most important items that need to be audited to cover
the list of auditable events specified by Controlled Access Protection Profile (CAPP).
33
The example rule set is divided into the following sections:
• Basic audit configuration (see Section 33.1, “Adding Basic Audit Configuration
Parameters” (page 456))
• Watches on audit log files and configuration files (see Section 33.2, “Adding
Watches on Audit Log Files and Configuration Files” (page 457))
• Monitoring operations on file system objects (see Section 33.3, “Monitoring File
System Objects” (page 458))
• Monitoring security databases (see Section 33.4, “Monitoring Security Configuration Files and Databases” (page 459))
• Monitoring miscellaneous system calls (Section 33.5, “Monitoring Miscellaneous
System Calls” (page 461))
• Filtering system call arguments (see Section 33.6, “Filtering System Call
Arguments” (page 462))
To transform this example into a configuration file to use in your live setup, proceed
as follows:
1 Choose the appropriate settings for your setup and adjust them.
Introducing an Audit Rule Set
455
2 Adjust the file /etc/audit/audit.rules by adding rules from the examples below or by modifying existing rules.
NOTE: Adjusting the Level of Audit Logging
Do not copy the example below into your audit setup without adjusting it to
your needs. Determine what and to what extent to audit.
The entire audit.rules is just a collection of auditctl commands. Every line
in this file expands to a full auditctl command line. The syntax used in the rule set
is the same as that of the auditctl command.
33.1 Adding Basic Audit
Configuration Parameters
-D
-b 8192
-f 2
Delete any preexisting rules before starting to define new ones.
Set the number of buffers to take the audit messages. Depending on the level of
audit logging on your system, increase or decrease this figure.
Set the failure flag to use when the kernel needs to handle critical errors. Possible values are 0 (silent), 1 (printk, print a failure message), and 2 (panic, halt
the system).
By emptying the rule queue with the -D option, you make sure that audit does not
use any other rule set than what you are offering it by means of this file. Choosing
an appropriate buffer number (-b) is vital to avoid having your system fail because
of too high an audit load. Choosing the panic failure flag -f 2 ensures that your audit records are complete even if the system is encountering critical errors. By shutting
down the system on a critical error, audit makes sure that no process escapes from its
control as it otherwise might if level 1 (printk) were chosen.
IMPORTANT: Choosing the Failure Flag
Before using your audit rule set on a live system, make sure that the setup
has been thoroughly evaluated on test systems using the worst case produc456
Security Guide
tion workload. It is even more critical that you do this when specifying the -f
2 flag, because this instructs the kernel to panic (perform an immediate halt
without flushing pending data to disk) if any thresholds are exceeded. Consider the use of the -f 2 flag for only the most security-conscious environments.
33.2 Adding Watches on Audit Log
Files and Configuration Files
Adding watches on your audit configuration files and the log files themselves ensures
that you can track any attempt to tamper with the configuration files or detect any attempted accesses to the log files.
NOTE: Creating Directory and File Watches
Creating watches on a directory is not necessarily sufficient if you need
events for file access. Events on directory access are only triggered when the
directory's inode is updated with metadata changes. To trigger events on file
access, add watches for each individual file to monitor.
-w /var/log/audit/
-w /var/log/audit/audit.log
#-w
#-w
#-w
#-w
-w
-w
-w
-w
/var/log/audit/audit_log.1
/var/log/audit/audit_log.2
/var/log/audit/audit_log.3
/var/log/audit/audit_log.4
/etc/audit/auditd.conf -p wa
/etc/audit/audit.rules -p wa
/etc/libaudit.conf -p wa
/etc/sysconfig/auditd -p wa
Set a watch on the directory where the audit log is located. Trigger an event for
any type of access attempt to this directory. If you are using log rotation, add
watches for the rotated logs as well.
Set a watch on an audit configuration file. Log all write and attribute change attempts to this file.
Introducing an Audit Rule Set
457
33.3 Monitoring File System
Objects
Auditing system calls helps track your system's activity well beyond the application
level. By tracking file system–related system calls, get an idea of how your applications are using these system calls and determine whether that use is appropriate. By
tracking mount and umount operations, track the use of external resources (removable
media, remote file systems, etc.).
IMPORTANT: Auditing System Calls
Auditing system calls results in a high logging activity. This activity, in turn,
puts a heavy load on the kernel. With a kernel less responsive than usual, the
system's backlog and rate limits might be exceeded. Carefully evaluate which
system calls to include in your audit rule set and adjust the log settings accordingly. See Section 31.2, “Configuring the Audit Daemon” (page 409) for
details on how to tweak the relevant settings.
-a entry,always -S chmod -S fchmod -S chown -S chown32 -S fchown -S fchown32
-S lchown -S lchown32
-a entry,always -S creat -S open -S truncate -S truncate64 -S ftruncate -S
ftruncate64
-a entry,always -S mkdir -S rmdir
-a entry,always -S unlink -S rename -S link -S symlink
-a
-a
-a
-a
-a
-a
entry,always
entry,always
entry,always
entry,always
entry,always
entry,always
-S
-S
-S
-S
-S
-S
setxattr
lsetxattr
fsetxattr
removexattr
lremovexattr
fremovexattr
-a entry,always -S mknod
-a entry,always -S mount -S umount -S umount2
Enable an audit context for system calls related to changing file ownership and
permissions. Depending on the hardware architecture of your system, enable or
disable the *32 rules. 64-bit systems, like x86_64 and ia64, require the *32
rules to be removed.
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Enable an audit context for system calls related to file content modification. Depending on the hardware architecture of your system, enable or disable the *64
rules. 64-bit systems, like x86_64 and ia64, require the *64 rules to be removed.
Enable an audit context for any directory operation, like creating or removing a
directory.
Enable an audit context for any linking operation, such as symlink, link, unlink,
or rename.
Enable an audit context for any operation related to extended file system attributes.
Enable an audit context for the mknod system call, which creates special (device) files.
Enable an audit context for any mount or umount operation. For the x64_64
architecture, disable the umount rule. For the ia64 architecture, disable the
umount2 rule.
33.4 Monitoring Security
Configuration Files and Databases
To make sure that your system is not made to do undesired things, track any attempts
to change the cron and at configurations or the lists of scheduled jobs. Tracking
any write access to the user, group, password and login databases and logs helps you
identify any attempts to manipulate your system's user database.
Tracking changes to your system configuration (kernel, services, time, etc.) helps
you spot any attempts of others to manipulate essential functionality of your system.
Changes to the PAM configuration should also be monitored in a secure environment,
because changes in the authentication stack should not be made by anyone other than
the administrator, and it should be logged which applications are using PAM and how
it is used. The same applies to any other configuration files related to secure authentication and communication.
-w /var/spool/atspool
-w /etc/at.allow
-w /etc/at.deny
-w
-w
-w
-w
-w
-w
/etc/cron.allow -p wa
/etc/cron.deny -p wa
/etc/cron.d/ -p wa
/etc/cron.daily/ -p wa
/etc/cron.hourly/ -p wa
/etc/cron.monthly/ -p wa
Introducing an Audit Rule Set
459
-w /etc/cron.weekly/ -p wa
-w /etc/crontab -p wa
-w /var/spool/cron/root
-w /etc/group -p wa
-w /etc/passwd -p wa
-w /etc/shadow
-w
-w
-w
-w
/etc/login.defs -p wa
/etc/securetty
/var/log/faillog
/var/log/lastlog
-w /etc/hosts -p wa
-w /etc/sysconfig/
-w /etc/inittab -p wa
-w /etc/init.d/
-w /etc/init.d/auditd -p wa
-w /etc/ld.so.conf -p wa
-w /etc/localtime -p wa
-w /etc/sysctl.conf -p wa
-w /etc/modprobe.d/
-w /etc/modprobe.conf.local -p wa
-w /etc/modprobe.conf -p wa
-w /etc/pam.d/
-w /etc/aliases -p wa
-w /etc/postfix/ -p wa
-w /etc/ssh/sshd_config
-w /etc/stunnel/stunnel.conf
-w /etc/stunnel/stunnel.pem
-w /etc/vsftpd.ftpusers
-w /etc/vsftpd.conf
-a exit,always -S sethostname
-w /etc/issue -p wa
-w /etc/issue.net -p wa
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Set watches on the at and cron configuration and the scheduled jobs and assign labels to these events.
Set watches on the user, group, password, and login databases and logs and set
labels to better identify any login-related events, such as failed login attempts.
Set a watch and a label on the static hostname configuration in /etc/hosts.
Track changes to the system configuration directory, /etc/sysconfig.
Enable per-file watches if you are interested in file events. Set watches and
labels for changes to the boot configuration in /etc/inittab and the /
etc/init.d directory. Enable per-file watches if you are interested in file
events. Set watches and labels for any changes to the linker configuration in
/etc/ld.so.conf. Set watches and a label for /etc/localtime. Set
watches and labels for the kernel configuration files /etc/sysctl.conf,
/etc/modprobe.d/, /etc/modprobe.conf.local, and /etc/
modprobe.conf.
Set watches on the PAM configuration directory. If you are interested in particular files below the directory level, add explicit watches to these files as well.
Set watches to the postfix configuration to log any write attempt or attribute
change and use labels for better tracking in the logs.
Set watches and labels on the ssh, stunnel, and vsftpd configuration files.
Perform an audit of the sethostname system call and set watches and labels on the system identification configuration in /etc/issue and /etc/
issue.net.
33.5 Monitoring Miscellaneous
System Calls
As well as auditing file system related system calls, as described in Section 33.3,
“Monitoring File System Objects” (page 458), you can also track various other system calls. Tracking task creation helps you understand your applications' behavior.
Auditing the umask system call lets you track how processes modify permissions.
Tracking any attempts to change the system time helps you identify anyone or any
process trying to manipulate the system time.
-a entry,always -S clone -S fork -S vfork
## For ia64 architecture, disable fork and vfork rules above, and
## enable the following:
#-a entry,always -S clone2
Introducing an Audit Rule Set
461
-a entry,always -S umask
-a entry,always -S adjtimex -S settimeofday
Track task creation. To enable task tracking on the ia64 architecture, comment
the first rule and enable the second one.
Add an audit context to the umask system call.
Track attempts to change the system time. adjtimex can be used to skew the
time. settimeofday sets the absolute time.
33.6 Filtering System Call
Arguments
In addition to the system call auditing introduced in Section 33.3, “Monitoring File
System Objects” (page 458) and Section 33.5, “Monitoring Miscellaneous System
Calls” (page 461), you can track application behavior to an even higher degree. Applying filters helps you focus audit on areas of primary interest to you. This section
introduces filtering system call arguments for nonmultiplexed system calls like access and for multiplexed ones like socketcall or ipc. Whether system calls are multiplexed depends on the hardware architecture used. Both socketcall and ipc are not
multiplexed on 64-bit architectures, such as x86_64 and ia64.
IMPORTANT: Auditing System Calls
Auditing system calls results in high logging activity, which in turn puts a
heavy load on the kernel. With a kernel less responsive than usual, the
system's backlog and rate limits might well be exceeded. Carefully evaluate
which system calls to include in your audit rule set and adjust the log settings
accordingly. See Section 31.2, “Configuring the Audit Daemon” (page 409)
for details on how to tweak the relevant settings.
The access system call checks whether a process would be allowed to read, write or
test for the existence of a file or file system object. Using the -F filter flag, build
rules matching specific access calls in the format-F a1=access_mode. Check /
usr/include/fcntl.h for a list of possible arguments to the access system call.
-a entry,always -S access -F a1=4
-a entry,always -S access -F a1=6
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-a entry,always -S access -F a1=7
Audit the access system call, but only if the second argument of the system call
(mode) is 4 (R_OK). This rule filters for all access calls testing for sufficient
write permissions to a file or file system object accessed by a user or process.
Audit the access system call, but only if the second argument of the system call
(mode) is 6, meaning 4 OR 2, which translates to R_OK OR W_OK. This rule
filters for access calls testing for sufficient read and write permissions.
Audit the access system call, but only if the second argument of the system call
(mode) is 7, meaning 4 OR 2 OR 1, which translates to R_OK OR W_OK
OR X_OK. This rule filters for access calls testing for sufficient read, write, and
execute permissions.
The socketcall system call is a multiplexed system call. Multiplexed means that there
is only one system call for all possible calls and that libc passes the actual system call
to use as the first argument (a0). Check the manual page of socketcall for possible
system calls and refer to /usr/src/linux/include/linux/net.h for a list
of possible argument values and system call names. Audit supports filtering for specific system calls using a -F a0=syscall_number.
-a entry,always -S socketcall -F a0=1 -F a1=10
## Use this line on x86_64, ia64 instead
#-a entry,always -S socket -F a0=10
-a entry,always -S socketcall -F a0=5
## Use this line on x86_64, ia64 instead
#-a entry, always -S accept
Audit the socket(PF_INET6) system call. The -F a0=1 filter matches all socket system calls and the -F a1=10 filter narrows the matches down to socket
system calls carrying the IPv6 protocol family domain parameter (PF_INET6).
Check /usr/src/linux/include/linux/net.h for the first argument
(a0) and /usr/src/linux/include/linux/socket.h for the second
parameter (a1). 64-bit platforms, like x86_64 and ia64, do not use multiplexing
on socketcall system calls. For these platforms, comment the rule and add the
plain system call rules with a filter on PF_INET6.
Audit the socketcall system call. The filter flag is set to filter for a0=5 as the
first argument to socketcall, which translates to the accept system call if you
check /usr/include/linux/net.h. 64-bit platforms, like x86_64 and
ia64, do not use multiplexing on socketcall system calls. For these platforms,
comment the rule and add the plain system call rule without argument filtering.
The ipc system call is another example of multiplexed system calls. The actual call to
invoke is determined by the first argument passed to the ipc system call. Filtering for
Introducing an Audit Rule Set
463
these arguments helps you focus on those IPC calls of interest to you. Check /usr/
include/asm-generic/ipc.h for possible argument values.
## msgctl
-a entry,always -S ipc -F a0=14
## msgget
-a entry,always -S ipc -F a0=13
## Use these lines on x86_64, ia64 instead
#-a entry,always -S msgctl
#-a entry,always -S msgget
## semctl
-a entry,always -S ipc -F a0=3
## semget
-a entry,always -S ipc -F a0=2
## semop
-a entry,always -S ipc -F a0=1
## semtimedop
-a entry,always -S ipc -F a0=4
## Use these lines on x86_64, ia64 instead
#-a entry,always -S semctl
#-a entry,always -S semget
#-a entry,always -S semop
#-a entry,always -S semtimedop
## shmctl
-a entry,always -S ipc -F a0=24
## shmget
-a entry,always -S ipc -F a0=23
## Use these lines on x86_64, ia64 instead
#-a entry,always -S shmctl
#-a entry,always -S shmget
Audit system calls related to IPC SYSV message queues. In this case, the a0
values specify that auditing is added for the msgctl and msgget system calls (14
and 13). 64-bit platforms, like x86_64 and ia64, do not use multiplexing on ipc
system calls. For these platforms, comment the first two rules and add the plain
system call rules without argument filtering.
Audit system calls related to IPC SYSV message semaphores. In this case, the
a0 values specify that auditing is added for the semctl, semget, semop, and semtimedop system calls (3, 2, 1, and 4). 64-bit platforms, like x86_64 and ia64, do
not use multiplexing on ipc system calls. For these platforms, comment the first
four rules and add the plain system call rules without argument filtering.
Audit system calls related to IPC SYSV shared memory. In this case, the a0 values specify that auditing is added for the shmctl and shmget system calls (24,
23). 64-bit platforms, like x86_64 and ia64, do not use multiplexing on ipc sys464
Security Guide
tem calls. For these platforms, comment the first two rules and add the plain system call rules without argument filtering.
33.7 Managing Audit Event Records
Using Keys
After configuring a few rules generating events and populating the logs, you need
to find a way to tell one event from the other. Using the ausearch command, you
can filter the logs for various criteria. Using ausearch -m message_type,
you can at least filter for events of a certain type. However, to be able to filter for
events related to a particular rule, you need to add a key to this rule in the /etc/
audit/audit.rules file. This key is then added to the event record every time
the rule logs an event. To retrieve these log entries, simply run ausearch -k
your_key to get a list of records related to the rule carrying this particular key.
As an example, assume you have added the following rule to your rule file:
-w /etc/audit/audit.rules -p wa
Without a key assigned to it, you would probably have to filter for SYSCALL or
PATH events then use grep or similar tools to isolate any events related to the above
rule. Now, add a key to the above rule, using the -k option:
-w /etc/audit/audit.rules -p wa -k CFG_audit.rules
You can specify any text string as key. Distinguish watches related to different types
of files (configuration files or log files) from one another using different key prefixes
(CFG, LOG, etc.) followed by the filename. Finding any records related to the above
rule now comes down to the following:
ausearch -k CFG_audit.rules
---time->Thu Feb 19 09:09:54 2009
type=PATH msg=audit(1235030994.032:8649): item=3 name="audit.rules~"
inode=370603 dev=08:06 mode=0100640 ouid=0 ogid=0 rdev=00:00
type=PATH msg=audit(1235030994.032:8649): item=2 name="audit.rules"
inode=370603 dev=08:06 mode=0100640 ouid=0 ogid=0 rdev=00:00
type=PATH msg=audit(1235030994.032:8649): item=1 name="/etc/audit"
inode=368599 dev=08:06 mode=040750 ouid=0 ogid=0 rdev=00:00
type=PATH msg=audit(1235030994.032:8649): item=0 name="/etc/audit"
inode=368599 dev=08:06 mode=040750 ouid=0 ogid=0 rdev=00:00
type=CWD msg=audit(1235030994.032:8649): cwd="/etc/audit"
type=SYSCALL msg=audit(1235030994.032:8649): arch=c000003e syscall=82
success=yes exit=0 a0=7deeb0 a1=883b30 a2=2 a3=ffffffffffffffff items=4
Introducing an Audit Rule Set
465
ppid=25400 pid=32619 auid=0 uid=0 gid=0 euid=0 suid=0 fsuid=0 egid=0
sgid=0 fsgid=0 tty=pts1 ses=1164 comm="vim" exe="/bin/vim-normal"
key="CFG_audit.rules"
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34
Useful Resources
There are other resources available containing valuable information about the Linux
audit framework:
The Audit Manual Pages
There are several man pages installed along with the audit tools that provide valuable and very detailed information:
auditd(8)
The Linux Audit daemon
auditd.conf(5)
The Linux Audit daemon configuration file
auditctl(8)
A utility to assist controlling the kernel's audit system
autrace(8)
A program similar to strace
ausearch(8)
A tool to query audit daemon logs
aureport(8)
A tool that produces summary reports of audit daemon logs
audispd.conf(5)
The audit event dispatcher configuration file
Useful Resources
467
audispd(8)
The audit event dispatcher daemon talking to plug-in programs.
http://people.redhat.com/sgrubb/audit/index.html
The home page of the Linux audit project. This site contains several specifications relating to different aspects of Linux audit, as well as a short FAQ.
/usr/share/doc/packages/audit
The audit package itself contains a README with basic design information and
sample .rules files for different scenarios:
capp.rules: Controlled Access Protection Profile (CAPP)
lspp.rules: Labeled Security Protection Profile (LSPP)
nispom.rules: National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual Chapter 8(NISPOM)
stig.rules: Secure Technical Implementation Guide (STIG)
http://www.commoncriteriaportal.org/
The official Web site of the Common Criteria project. Learn all about the Common Criteria security certification initiative and which role audit plays in this
framework.
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GNU Licenses
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